I woke up this morning at 3:30 to catch our 6 AM flight out of Missoula, Montana. My dad was kind enough to stay the night in Missoula and wake up around 4:30 to take my friend Shawn and me to the airport. We got to the airport just before 5 AM for a long day of flying. We had a quick turnaround in Salt Lake and about a five-hour layover in …

We woke around 6:30 AM today to get ready and have a delicious breakfast in the hotel before heading off to Arenal for the next couple days. We were on a transfer with another couple and two women who had all just arrived the night before as well. After a couple hours of driving, we arrived in La Fortuna, dropped the others off at their hotels, …

We woke this morning, and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto (beans and rice), bacon, fruit, coffee, and juice. We went to the reception to arrange an afternoon canopy tour at the Arenal Paraiso Lodge, and then set off with about twenty other travelers to do a guided hike to the lava flows. We rode down the hill to the entrance of the …

We had to get up extremely early again today, for our 5:30 pickup and transfer to Selva Bananito Lodge in the south-east part of Costa Rica. (The group transfers were a great way to go, but unfortunately we cannot control the pickup times!) The drive was amazing, beautiful sights and incredibly windy roads. (Thank goodness for Dramamine!) As we …

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast in the main lodge, and set out with Justo, our guide, and Jonathan, his assistant. We walked along the Bananito River, crossing it repeatedly, sometimes just walking right through the river. We stopped after a bit to swim and drink some fresh juice, and then continued up the river. After a couple hours of …

This morning, I woke up before dawn, and was feeling pretty tired and worn out. On our way to the main lodge, I looked up and saw a beautiful orange Julia butterfly flutter by, and I knew it was going to be a good day. We got to the base of the tree where Justo was waiting for us with our gear. He showed us how to work all the gear, and we set off …

We woke up to the rain, still falling from the night before, so we relaxed, had breakfast, and decided to just go for a walk after the rain stopped. We walked away from Puerto Viejo, towards Panama, along the road. After about half a mile or so, we found a trail down to the beach and kept walking south along the beach. The beach was empty, other …

Today, we decided we were going to rent bikes so we could get around a bit easier, and not have to pay for taxis each time we went to town. It was the prettiest morning since we have gotten to the beach, and I was excited to get some sun! We rented bikes from a hotel down the road from us, for $5 each for the day, and headed into town. We wandered …

We had a pickup today around 6:00 AM for our transfer to the rafting station. We picked up a bunch of others around Puerto Viejo, and headed off towards the river. After a quick breakfast of eggs, fruit, toast, coffee and juice, we got back in the vans and headed up to the put-in place, 18 miles up the river. We walked for about 10 minutes down a …