emily and her life

Hello all, Well I am convinced I have a unique touch and am able to break anything I come in contact with. bad things happen in threes, well I have successfully broken three things in a row. The first was my camera, no explanation there.
The second was when Klaus and I were planning a trip to the Santa Elena cloudburst preserve and the bus left at 8am. Breakfast was provided by the hotel (thought it wasn´t too filling) We woke up at 630 to the alarm and got all ready, for some reason it was cold outside, strange. But we got up ate really good meusli and fresh, fresh pina y melon de agua. Then the news came on. It was 630 and we had been up for at least on hour. I had hit the wrong time zone on my clock and it was one hour ahead of where we should have been. So we had to go and nap for another hour. I broke time.
After that mishap we went on a bumpy ride, as they all are, to Santa Elena Preserve. They have an amazing building that you drive up to and I was reminded of Jurassic Park. The fancy building amidst a lush forest with wild noises eminating from it. After getting out and stretching a little we set off into the forest for our hike. It was really green and dense as it was the secondary forest, the primary was a few Km away from us and it had a fee to get into. The path was really clear and I think it was someone´s job to sweep it nightly as I saw broom patterns in the dirt. Eh well, gotta keep it nice for the tourists right? We crossed eight suspension bridges ranging in length and height. Klaus wanted to get them really swinging, but I didn´t want too I guess I am a wussy. We were there for about three hours and only saw a few colorful birds and wild bugs, but nothing else that was movng around. The amazing part were the trees and Fauna of course. Huge ferns and bright colorful flowers in the most unexpected places. Unreal.
We Had to go and eat of course after this strenuous hike, and after we were done I noticed the cook, an older Señora, had cut her finger. I asked her what had happened and she made a chopping motion to her finger and said ¡Aii! We all laughed, but it looked painful.
We went to the Lecheria for some helados (I hope it was nonfat) and then walked to the frogpond. I think I know an awful lot about frogs right now, but they are really amazing. WE got to see many different species and my favorite was this teeny frog that was transparent in light. I could see it´s inner organs working, that was a sight for my eyes. We also walked by the El Bosque El Niños the forset of children and I lauged because all the signs said B.E.N. Just like it was Ben´s forest =)
We left Santa Elena for la Fortuna yesterday morning and rode up the craziest dirt road I have seen in a while, We rode across Lake Arenal and got our first view of Volcano Arenal, the top was covered in clouds at first but they blew off and we could see the peak, wow. It began to rain after we had crossed the lake and were in the bus, we drove on a paved road (!) to the town of La Fortuna and found a wonderful place with a balcony and an amazing view of the volcano. As I type this I can glance up and see it also.
Oh yeah we had the best meal of my entire life for 34$ in La Fortuna, if you ever are here go to Choza La Laural. We had a platter of varying foods that were so amazing I wanted to melt. 2 whole lobsters, huge shrimp, fresh pescado, sirlion steak, pork tenderloin and half a chicken all from the BBQ: Dad it was heaven! There were a few veggies also, but it was wild. We were staring across the table from each other with glee in our eyes and all we could say between bites was ¨I can´t believe it¨
We took a guided tour into the rainforest, of course it dumped on us but it was ok I am used to getting wet by now. We saw a few toucans and a few huge Turkeys in the trees, odd. Again amazing trees and plants. After hiking for about an hour, think the dipsea stairs hiking, we came to an observation piont for the volcano and the show started. I was mezmerized by the lava flow, to see and hear the huge red hot boulders crashing down the side of the volcano was just breathtaking. I cannot describe it properly, you have to have experienced it for yourself to appreciate it fully. Angela and Travis you have to come here.
After watching for about an hour we then went to Baldi Hot Springs. This too was unreal. A system of hotsprings feeding many different pools of water all with varying degrees of heat. the main one had a swim up bar and it was really chilly, well compared to a few other ones the hottest was 187 degrees! They had water slides and waterfalls all over this place, it was wonderful. It also had no roof, so you could see the moon and the volcano from a few pools as well. We took full advantage of those pools, the minerals were so good for us, My hair feels so soft today and so does my skin. It was a very surreal experience, sitting in a hotspring pool sipping planters punch and watching a volcano spew lava. I love my life.
So for today who knows what we will do, I will tell you the third thing that I broke was the toilet at breakfast. And I will leave it at that.