Two Beers and a Pretzel

Erinn, Ingrid and I booked a nature hike thru the rainforest to see the volcano again (but it was cloudy), then on to a massive Italian buffet at the resort, followed by 2 hours in God’s hot tub.

For all my friends back home in the FREEZING weather…  Here’s how my day started with Ingrid at the pool…  unfortunately, Erinn wasn’t feeling well, but she got better by mid afternoon.

Warning:  Video of a seriously pale, husky (I’m not fat) guy doing a belly flop because the Dutch girl claimed that she didn’t know what one was:

Erin got better just in time for the tour, so we hopped into a minivan and our guide took us into the National Forrest around the volcano to search for (in my best Steve Irwin voice) “the rare and beautiful, and often deadly local fauna.”  Luckilly, the deadly stayed home…

Wild Turkeys, Three Toed Sloths, Howler Monkeys, Toucans, and something related to a Raccoon.  Sorry for the blur on these images, I took the pics thru the guides telescope.

Toucan Sam

Momma and baby monkey.

Video of a male howler monkey climbing in a tree:

Ingrid and Erinn near the steaming hot river.

There wasn’t much to see when we hiked to the volcano viewing area, so we moved on to the dinner buffett.

And then into the river…

FYI:  Heaven is officially in Costa Rica, masquerading as the Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort.  The volcano heats and entire river to about 102, and it flows thru this resort.  In the evening, it was a balmy 70 with light drizzle.  I think all three of us decided that this is definate honeymoon material, if not the wedding itself (just talk your family into the cost… one night at Tabacon, and then skip to the private rooms at the Backpacker’s Resort in La Fortuna for $25 each).  People staying there pay up to $400 a night.  We did it all for $60 each.

This waterfall was incredible.  You could sit or stand under it and it was a perfect heated massage.  At one point, Ingrid and I fell back into the suna-like area between the waterfall and rocks and just laughed because it was so awesome.

Bummer, some dude walked into the waterfall just before I took this picture…

They also diverted some of the hot water to a waterslide…

My Splashdown

Ingrid’s compilation

We got back to the Hostel around 10 PM and totally crashed, which was good because we had an 8:30 AM trip to Monteverde dubbed “Jeep, Boat, Jeep”.

The trip was more like “minivan, ferry, minivan in a trench that seriously stretches the definition of the word road”.  We found a decent hostel and ate the best veggy pizza I’ve ever had, but Erinn started feeling sick again.  Tomorrow we’re booking tours on the zipline, tarzan swing, rapelling, rope bridges, and a horseback tour…  so we shoulld have plenty more good pics and vids.