Note: This is a continued entry from earlier today. If you missed the earlier entry, and you're into reading the things I write, you might enjoy hearing what I had to say about mine and Bryan's trip from Santa Ana to Fortuna.

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So moving on, Bryan and I woke up early the next morning and went on a tour with some guys from a company known as "Pure Trek Canyoning." The main drive of what these guys do involves hiking through the jungle, and from time to time rappelling down a waterfall or two. Or four. Bryan and I, being the skilled rappelling experts that we are, took on this challenge with gusto. They came to our hotel at around 7:30 to pick us up, and half an hour later we were hiking into a canyon and could hear the sounds of the approaching waterfall. After a brief safety speech from the guides, we (and the 15 or so others with us) began to descend the first of four waterfalls.

Umm... so I'm typing this, and I'm realizing there's not much more to say about what we did in the canyon. I mean, it was the time of my life and I'll never forget it, but it's just not story material. We rappelled down the falls, we hiked out of the canyon, we had lunch with the guides, and that's about it. I loved it. Honestly, one of the best days of my life.

After returning to our hotel, Bryan and I had scarcely put on dry clothes before it started to rain. Really really hard. And in a town like Fortuna, which is designed mostly for tourists, our options were to either go and try to see the volcano through a bunch of mist, clouds, and fog, go waste our money on souvenirs, or sit in the hotel and watch second-rate movies on HBO with the volume muted and try to figure out what they were about by reading the Spanish subtitles. Without question or hesitation, we chose the latter. And that was how we spent the rest of the day.

We made plans to go and see the volcano today, but it was foggy again, and so there was no chance we'd see anything resembling lava or even a crater. Bad luck with timing, but we'd been told to expect it. So we got on the bus to come home at around 12:45, and the fun started all over again. About five hours of travel-time, total, involving one kind of scary moment where a lady without an ounce of sense in her head LEANED AGAINST THE BUS DOORS with HER BABY IN HER ARMS, thus causing the door of the moving bus to fly open and nearly toppling her and her kid onto the road. Luckily somebody grabbed her in time, but seriously, who does that? Loca.

And now for some rather exciting news, I found out that one of the internet cafes here in Santa Ana will copy files from my camera's memory card onto a CD for me for a mere dollar. I jumped on this opportunity, and finally have some photographic evidence for all of you to enjoy from my trip.

Costa Rica Photos

I will be adding more to this page every week or two, and I'll say something about it on my blog when I do so that you don't have to constantly check on it.

By the way, I've received lots of comments, emails, and other types of messages about all the entries I've been writing since I've gotten here, and I really liked getting them. Thanks for taking an interest in Bryan and me, everybody. We're glad you like us.

And now, yet another time, I have to go karaoke with my local parents before I go to bed. Life is hard sometimes.

Viva la Conversa
-Juan