Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna. . . One of our days in Costa Rica

In the Middle of Costa Rica, or somewhere thereabouts, is the town of La Fortuna and the active volcano Arenal. We never went to see the lava flowing, which you can apparently see at night time, but we enjoyed the views of it during the day on the Zip Lines. These were such a blast! I highly recommend it for those who need a little adrenaline rush. Your heart pounds pretty hard before each "zip," but it was awesome!

This was the tram up to the top of the mountain. We met some nice people from Chicago.

This is the Volcano Arenal. It was gorgeous the day we went up to view it!

The Lake below (can't remember the name), I just wanted to go waterskiing on it.

This was the first real zip after the first two practices. You can't get a real idea of how long it is, but "Yikes", there was no easing into this. You can see the platform below and then you can't see the other end because its way over where you see the tree in the foreground of the bottom right side of the volcano. You are so flying across a deep valley. I was so nervous to do this first zip!

Here we are getting ready to go. Still gritting our teeth.

Greg did an awesome job on these zips. This one had an incredible view of the lake.

Here I am on my way in for a landing. Can you see me grinning ear to ear. By now I was a pro!

Later that day we went on an ATV tour

Looking over part of La Fortuna. To get to this point we rode through a ranch with lots of cows. Greg scared the heck out of one cow in our path. I thought it might come back to charge him, or me who was right behind him.

My Prince riding his red stallion

We saw this old bridge down a long road. It was like something out of a movie.
On our ride we passed this church. There was a birthday party going on and I just wanted to throw $20 bills as I rode by. There are some areas of Costa Rica where the people live in such simple homes and by such humble means. I myself was humbled during this trip. I learned to love and appreciate the Costa Rican people who lived so simply yet seemed very happy.

We saw these large ants all over the place. They were so cool because they were lifting really heavy things and taking them back to their ant hill. Okay, kind of boring for adults, but the kids like these pictures.

Then, after a long day of high adventure (sort of) we went back to our hotel that has an incredible hot springs facility down the road that is heated from the Arenal Volcano. The Tabacon Hot Springs were the perfect end to our day. So how were the kids doing?. . . What kids?