A man wholeaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.

Day 21:
Montezuma

I got up early to do a little running around the town before everyone else got up and took a little while to walk a few trails. Later, the group decided to relocate to Santa Teresa Beach so Jessica could take some surfing lessons. Chris, Mike, and I headed back to a waterfall hike near Montezuma and spent the day crawling through the jungle trying to find that place. It took several hours but after following various trails, and getting separated we finally met at the top of a pretty glorious waterfall. It was here for some reason that I decided to make my first attempts at cliff diving since we were probably 40 feet above the water (about 2 seconds of free fall). The pool itself was the top of another even larger waterfall. We all made a couple of attempts, and it wasone of the scariest things I've ever done. We headed back to the hostel at Santa Teresa surfed and swam a little bit before dark and grabbed some dinner.

I never receive bills to pay; there's a CRC error in my ZIP code!

Day 19:
Monteverde, Costa Rica

We got up early this morning and, with several other travelers staying at the hostel, were picked up by a shuttle bus to go check out the Extremo Canopy Ziplining tour. This little activity ended up being a blast. After harnessing up we took various ziplines through the canopy area. I had a lot of fun getting in some photography of the people sliding around and doing various activities. Besides simple zipping across cables, there was also a rappelling station and even a swing, the finale involved one that was 1km long at at a height of 180 meters. I got to meet Julie and her brother and friend who were all together touring Costa Rica. We really had a great time getting to know each other and would have loved to travel a bit more, but unfortunately the schedules just were not able to merge. I took too many photos of the canopy tour to post, so I've uploaded them to my Picasa Web Album; http://picasaweb.google.com/mblitch/CostaRicaExtremoZiplining

Based on some information in Chris's book, we also headed for some waterfall hike after getting back to Monteverde that we were eventually able to find. We had to rush to make it to the waterfall before dark, swim for like 5 minutes, and then walk back in the blackness. A lot of hassle, but still a fun little adventure. We decided to stay here one more night to get rested up before heading to the coast.

" " <--- sorry, my blog title was stolen.

Day 18:

After getting up in the morning we decided to hit one of the local swimming holes and take a dip for a while. Chris got directions and it was pretty easy to find and we had a good time on the rope swings and bouldering or climbing the waterfall. Unfortunately the car got broken into a second time with the GPS being stolen this time, so after dealing with the police report (necessary for the insurance) we decided to get the hell out of the area. We tried not to let this ruin the feeling for the country and felt it was just very unfortunate to have to deal with that kind of reality. The plan was to head to an area known for the ziplining, so we finally settled in a small town called Monteverde.

Once we left La Fortuna, we almost never saw pavement again. Most of the roads were pot-hole filled dirt pathways and we were lucky to even see gravel. I did all the driving for this trip and had a fun time, but it was amazing as to how long it took to get somewhere that would have seemed to be close on a map. Most of the time in the country seemed to be just driving since it would take about 4 hours to get from one location to the next. Once we got to Monteverde we walked the town for a bit, grabbed dinner, and signed up for a zip lining excursion for the next morning.

Help me look, Please? I've lost my damned innocence again.

Day 20:
San Francisco Beach, Montezuma

This was the longest day of travel for the entire trip. Without the local driving GPS, we were pretty much down to using the guidebook maps and my personal GPS (that didn't have any local maps saved within it). It is funny that I could know exactly in the world we were within a few feet, but couldn't figure out how to get someplace in the world that I also could locate within a few feet. We drove the Interamericas Highway a bit and got to San Francisco beach for our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, but in order to hit our destination beaches south we had to do more mountain crossings.

We had multiple water crossings and even nearly got stuck just off the road when we stopped for lunch. I backed up onto what I thought was just a wet are when it was very soft mud that quickly buried the rear right wheel to the axle. Even 4-wheel drive wasn't helping so the team was going to push until Jon thought to just pile on the front wheels so we could get traction which worked perfectly. Being in the middle of nowhere in a place like Costa Rica can be scary when you think you might be stuck there for a long time. We did get really lost once since the road signs were sparse at best with only a few 'major' intersection marked. Chris's Spanish language skills were invaluable. At one point we got to a water crossing that we didn't think was doable due to depth and river swiftness. It looked like we might have another 3 hour detour, so we tried a new route that looked like it might work but eventually started to turn into a very steep, extremely rugged path. At that time a guy on motorcycle came by and thankfully warned us that where we ere heading is pretty much impassable and could result in places impossible to turn around. we headed back with some of his directions and came into a town and decided to reevaluate out options. While pondering our fate a family came by in a car and Chris started working his magic. This was literally a town with a population of about 35, but was kind of quaint. The family said they would be back in 20 minutes and show us the way and quickly left. Sure enough, just 20 minutes later they reappeared and we followed them for quite a while over multiple stream crossings and through roads that never had a single sign to show the way. There was even someone on an ATV following us to make sure we made it. Just as quickly we found ourselves lost we found some saviors that took us to with a few miles of where we wanted to be. Before we departed we have them some various small gifts, playing cards, candies, etc, as a thank you for their kindness. We found a nice hostel right on the beach and then walked into town to find some food for the evening. There was a great lightning storm that night of which I tried to get a few pictures before heading to bed with a nice breeze and one more adventurous memory. Sometimes events like this can make it easy to believe in karma.

Hot water heater? Why would you need to heat water already hot?

Day 17: SJO
La Fortuna, Arenal

While the previous couple of weeks were pretty planned out already with every rental, site visited, and even driving tours pretty much planned out. Costa Rica was, nearly intentionally, left almost completely unplanned. When we boarded the plane, other than a pre-booked SUV rental, we had no idea what we were really going to do once we got outside of customs. We even had to just put in the name of some random hotel found in a guide book on the customs form as the place we would be staying. We were very fortunate having Chris with us through this trip since he spoke Spanish well and really aided in getting the information we needed. After getting the 4x4 and local GPS and packing up, we headed towards La Fortuna near the Arenal volcano. We stopped for provisions, lunch, and a few pictures along the way. We found a nice hostel and spent a while checking in, during which time the truck was broken into causing my new, 3 week old, netbook and over $100 in cash to disappear. We were just 100 feet away when this happened in mid afternoon.

It was getting a bit late, so we decided to head head to the Baldii Hot Springs nearby. This was a large resort area that had a dozen or so crafted natural hot pools of various temperatures. Wehn I say hot, I even mean scalding at times since even in one pool the water temperature was something like 115F. We had a blast playing around the various pools for several hours. Unlike the US with all the safety barriers, rules, and such, Costa Rica seems to be more like, 'if you get hurt it is because you are an idiot'. So, even the slides were open well after dark with absolutely no one around. These were steep slides too and I know at least in one or two all of us caught air. I wasn't expecting much out of this place and figured it was a tourist trap, but I ended up having a great time and am very glad that we went.

Orlando: Two million tourists and fifteen natives.

Day 16: DEN-MCO

As it happened someone that had stayed at the crash place the previous night needed a ride to the airport, so we were glad to be able to share our vehicle since we were heading straight there anyway; good karma in motion. I dropped off the passengers first and then took the car back to the rental place and shuttled back to the airport. Jessica and I finally boarded the plane and headed to Orlando where we would met up with Mike G, Chris B, and Jon B for an overnight stay in preparation for the next week's adventure, Costa Rica. This was mostly a day of travel, so we were all pretty exhausted when we got there. Fortunately Jon had pre-booked a room at a nearby hotel, so taking the shuttle bus was pretty easy. I had already traveled with Mike G and Chris B on other portions of the trip, so Jon was the newest great addition to the whole overall experience.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

Day 15:
Rocky Mountain National Park
Boulder

After getting up in the morning, a bit stiff from the chilly night, Jessica and I relaxed a bit in town while planning out the day's activities. Unfortunately, snowfall had kept the high roads closed, so we would be completely denied the chance to do the scenic drive that I had been wanting to experience. We decided to take on one of the longer loop hikes that went around a bunch of lakes. The next few hours were spent hike up the trails and taking in the views, though after a while I think she got tired of the 'same 'ol amazing views', but overall I think it was well worth it. After finishing off the hikes, we headed into Boulder. When Jessica was traveling in Colombia at the start of her AYCJ trip she met a few people, one of which lived in Boulder. Although he wasn't in town, he offered up the home of a friend of his should we pass through and need a place to crash. After a few e-mails and phone calls, we had a place to stay for the night and crashed with a large group of college kids in a small apartment. The shower felt great as it was the first chance I really had to clean up in several days. I rode with the hosts to pick up some food that we cooked out and enjoyed with about 8-10 various people that filtered in and out of the place. I crashed pretty early, as I tend to do, but we were at least able to get in an early start.