Kathryn & Volcan Arenal!!!

With the end of the summer trimester came a wonderful thing: Vacation and Kathryn!!! Yes, two splendid weeks of vacation with my wonderful sister awaited, and we quickly took advantage of the many options that Costa Rica provides and headed out first of all to visit Volcan Arenal, the most active volcano in Costa Rica and one of the most active in the world!!!
Here's Kat and I as we were taking off to start our travels. With everything we would need in our little backpacks, we boarded the public buses and survived the 4 1/2 hour ride on a very squished bus...but the ride was definitely worth it. Valió la pena!

Our first adventure after arriving was taking a hike down to a waterfall through the Rain Forest in a torrential downpour! But, never fear, we were well equiped for the trek with our flip flops and flimsy umbrellas to keep off the rain. Yet I must admit that the view and pictures were more than worth the trip.






Here's the volcano from our Hotel Room balcony. We stayed in La Fortuna, which is a city on the quiet side of the volcano, but we headed over to the active side for a great day of hiking!!

And here's Kathryn in front of the active volcano! It was amazing hearing the volcano gurgle and make little explosions along with watching it smoke and seeing huge boulders fly out of the cone and come skipping down the side leaving a trail of smoke and ash all the way down. As we hiked in the woods, we could always tell where we were in relation to the volcano becuase we could hear it almost all the time.
We had a wonderful time and I believe that this was a perfect stop for our first trip around Costa Rica. :)