So here is a quick run down of my tour so far! We started Mar 9 in San Jose and I'm currently in Granada, Nicaragua leaving for honduras tomorrow. So nervous but excited!!

It's been a TON of travel!!! pretty much every secod day we have headed to another location. after our first night in San Jose, we headed to la fortuna to one of the only active volcano's in the world. In la fortuna we did a volcano "hike" more like a casual flora fauna tour that really wasn't very exciting. Although I learned a cool fact about moss (it breaks down rocks to turn into fertile soil) and I saw a ba sleeping in an old abandoned termite nest. We did baldi hot springs with 3 crazy water slides (I donated some skin and still am recovering from the huge welt on my back). I paddle boarded in lake arenal which was awesome!! Then we went to monteverde. Spent two days there (2 too many if you ask me). I did extremo, the craiest zip line EVER. they had an awesome Tarzan swing and one o the lines was 1 km long suspended 700' above a valley. Unbelievable experience! I may have wet myself a little but I'll never admit it!! ;) the hotel we stayed at had a bunch of monkey's that lived in the nearby trees. the hotel staff feed them daily, which is naturally a great tourist attraction, bu not great for the monkey's. I think the alpha wanted to eat my eyeballs for lunch. I looked him in the eye and I've never seen such intensity! I ran! I kno pathetic, running from 1.5' monkey, but if you saw him you would understand! Even the other girls said he acted differently and more aggressive when I was around. Then it was off to Nicaragua. Such a change from costa rica. Dirtier, smellier and not as clean. But on the bright side cars seem to stop for pedestrians a little more than cr. We spent two days in ometepe, an island in lake Nicaragua (19th largest lake in the world). We took the craziest boat out to the island. It had holes all over and the water actually seeped through with every swell. It was crazy!!! I've have been in some crazy swells before but never in a boat that looked like it sat in a ship yard for the last 20 years! 5 of us went for a "difficult" hike (their words). WRONG! Intense hike through 2.5hrs of mud with nothing to see atthe top is more like it. But, despite being the most miserable 10 hr hike of my life, I felt AMAZING when we finished!! It was such a rush having completed it. We were literally in the midst of a central American jungle! Thick and lush. It was so beautiful. For the first hour we were surrounded by howler monkey troops. They were super cute, until the alpha started tryin to poo on us. I think he even threw a stick. I got attacked by a poisonous plant (not deadly, just irritating). If there is a plant to avoid, leave it to Christi to find it! I had a huge welt on my leg and it burned for abou 20 min but that was about it. I was relieved to discover it was not poison ivy. As we go closer to the top, the hike was still very steep (much like the first quarter of the grouse grind, maybe slightly steeper) but with 2.5 hrs left to hike, it turned to mud. Lots and lots of mud!! It is very difficult to hike in a jungle, afraid to use the trees to stabilize yourself as there could be scorpions, snakes or tarantulas on them and you are slipping in 4-6" of mud. You should have seen how dirty we got! When we got to the finish point, we were told we could swim. It was cold and misty. No way were we hopping in a lagoon without seeing anything! It was pretty darn cool to have lunch in the middle of a volcano's crater! Thhike down was just as miserable as the hike up, it just took us a bit less time. I'm telling you though, I looked at that volcano sooooo differently as we left then when we arrived!

After we left ometepe, we headed to Granada. It's a cool old colonial town though very sticken with poverty. I've grown a little attached in the 2.5 days we have been here, but I would get bored pretty quickly if we stayed any longer.

Tomorrow it is off to honduras. We stay in the capital (tegacilupa or something weird like that) for the night and quickly depart in the morning for the roatan islands. This is going to be one of the high lights to my trip. It's amazing from what I hear! Lots of snorkeling for me! But first we have to survive the capital. Wish us luck!