Tom, Pia, myself with a special guest Lorna 2001

After a long 2 year delay it was time to return to Costa Rica. This time it would be Tom (who had to cancel at the last minute in 1999) and myself heading from Dallas to meet up with Lorna and Pia. Though a scheduling problem with Lorna's work would not allow her to join us on our weekend adventures we did get the opportunity to spend some time with Lorna on the night we arrived in San Jose.

After a night of festivities in the local disco's it was time to load up the Pathfinder (fully insured I might add) and head off to Arenal for some fun and excitement. Our first stop was a small church with this really cool topiary garden.. pictures don't do it justice I swear.

Next it was onward to Arenal where we checked into this really cool little hotel on the North side of the Volcano. It was a very cloudy day so things didn't look good for us to actually see an eruption so I guess that just means we will have to return...

After we quickly got settled into our room, it was a quick change of close and then off to the Canopy tour. Now this turned out to be a lot of fun, but that initial climb up a rope ladder 100 feet up onto a small platform in the top of a tree, scared the crap out of me. But once I got the hang of it, it was a blast. The guides had extra fun, trying to scare the hell out of Pia. Tom got the last laugh when the guide was trying to scare him into climbing down a vine instead of repealing like we were supposed to. Tom basically said sure and started to go for it, when the guide had to stop him and explain he was kidding and that nobody has ever tried to take him up on the offer. 

Afterwards we wound down in the hot springs at the base of the Volcano... And then after dinner we shot some pool back at the hotel with some new friends, while Tom was sleeping

The next day we were going to head straight to Montezuma for the big party, but Tom found a guide which would take us up to 500 meters away from the lava flows. So we paid the lady at the desk, waited for a van to come get us and headed off to the Volcano. Along the way we were informed that there was a miscommunication, and in fact we were crazy for wanting to get that close to the lava flows (man these people are starting to sound like all our friends back in the states). So we went on the other side of the volcano and did some hiking, it was actually pretty cool, but Tom and I will return to do a solo mission up the active side of the volcano soon.

After our small adventure up the volcano, it was now time to load up and head to Montezuma... Along the way we ran into (not literally) many strange furry creatures and even ended up in the middle of a forest fire. But we made it and found (after about an hour or so of searching) a really cool room on top of a hill overlooking the ocean, each of our rooms had a hammock right outside our door which was awesome for relaxing in after long days of running around. 

After a short disco nap... ok it was longer than we initially thought, Pia and I got up and headed to the party that the Growling Mad Scientists  were playing at. We didn't get there till 4:00AM but the party was still going pretty strong, but you could see a lot of people walking back into town, so I bet it was really happening around 1:00 or 2:00AM. And with a short stroll over to the beach from the party, we saw the most beautiful Sunrise.  Oh yeah... Tom was sleeping.

The next was time to head to the beach, Pia told us about this place called Mar Pais which required a four wheel drive to get to (which we had). As the pictures show, Tom went out into the ocean to find us some food. We asked for Lobsters but all he came back with was a starfish, which I don't think is good eating. But anyway we had a lot of fun and the beach was definitely beautiful.

next it was hammock time while we rested up for the final night of the big party....

Once we were all dressed up and ready to go, it was off to the party, we seemed to have gotten there pretty early and everyone was just kind of hanging out, but with the help of a couple of Somosas as a food base and a 100 proof bottle of Vodka we seemed to have no problem getting the party kicked into full swing. 

The problem with a large bottle of 100 proof vodka and a slow party is you tend to sit around and sip on it more than you probably should. So by 2:00AM or so, we were pretty much exhausted and wasted all at the same time and made our way back to the rooms, where Pia and I actually fell asleep in the hammock.

The next day we drove back to San Jose and crashed before our early flight Monday morning back to Dallas :-(