Guest Blog by MaryKate McDonald

And all is right with the world....the Baldi Resort is behind us, our lovely "Asian" hostel receptionist has allowed us to spend the night, and the sun is shining!  Liz, Suzie, and I happily jump into our SkyTram Skytrek van and depart for zip-lining through the rainforests of Arenal. Suddenly, the heavens open up (nothing we can't handle, with all our rain experience), but then Disney workers join the van, and then wouldn't you know it, we pick up more Disney freaks! Unbelievable, they know each other! Isn't it a "small world after all?" After much Magic Kingdom and Epcot talk, we arrive at our destination. There are a number of steps before taking the zip of a lifetime. 1- Sign your life away.  2- Allow a Tico to adjust your helmet and harnesses. 3- Use el baño. Ok and we're off. Tres amigas sit cautiously in a Tram, not the smoothest of gondolas, heading 3000 feet on a mountainous ascent. Upon arriving at the top, we are greeted with glasses of Iced Tea. We would have preferred Tequila to ease the shakes. Our "bilingual" guide snaps on his carabiner and does his best "speaking the English" while explaining how to zip line safely. Suzie steps up onto the platform, gets into position, and zips across, perfecto!  My turn, I inform the guide that estoy nerviosa and he replies, "yo tambien, it's my second day and I'm still in training." NO GRACIAS!  With muchos butterflies, Liz and I zip across, success. One small, short zip-line down, seven more terrifying lines to go! Zip-line numero tres separates the pollos from the hombres. With the bravest of faces, we flew from mountain to mountain overlooking the most beautiful hillsides, not to mention the famous Arenal Volcano and Lake. Seeking even more of an adrenalin rush? I think so! In a superstitious fashion, Suzie, then myself, and holding up the caboose, Liz soared above the treetops, experiencing zip-lines named, Speedy Gonzales and Big Daddy. What a thrill! Eight zip-lines, sixty spiral steps, and three huge smiles later, we were back on solid ground. With excitement from the day's events and hungry bellies off to The Springs we went. Sushi for five, por favor.

Day 15

Today started off & ended really great. We had breakfast at our hotel in La Fortuna and hit the streets to scourer for great buys/souvenirs. 

La fortuna is the little town at the base of the volcano that's been turned to ash a time or two by lava. It is really clean and doesn't smell like Quepos did (the town outside of Manuel Antonio). We were craving chocolate again and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, a chocleteria mirage appeared- except it wasn't a mirage!! Chocolate!! mmm. 

We grabbed a cab to The Baldi Springs Resort - which has been recommended by several people we've met here and was featured in my Costa Rica book. We get there early and tried to check in but our room wasn't ready. The dude gave us wristbands to use the springs until our room was ready…we walked around and were more than underwhelmed - and not just because we were spoiled the day before at one of the top 5 rated romantic places in the world (The Springs). 

Depressionville

all fake smiles

at the winemine aka baldi

We were shelling out a pretty penny to stay at a place like that and, frankly, it reminded me of the watermine. so Kim decided to see if we could get our money back and dip set. Eureeka! it worked, we checked in and checked out equally as fast. Liz, Suz & MK were being picked up at Baldi for their zip line excursion, so they had to stay. We threw all of our luggage (again) into a van. Kim & I high-tailed it back to town, dropped our luggage back in our room and hailed a cab back to The Springs. Not to sound bratty, (ok, this is going to be bratty) but how do you go back to canned tuna fish when you've been eating caviar? 

Kim and I lounged at The Springs all day and the girls met us there for the last supper after their zip line experience. How did it go?? Well, they survived! One of them is going to guest-blog about the experience later & share photos/videos later. 

Tomorrow we lose another - Kim, MK, Susan and I take the NatureAir puddle jumper to Tamarindo & get back to caviar at the JW Marriott Guanacaste. Liz will meet her beau in San Jose on Wednesday to then hop over to Tortuguero for the rest of the time here.

Day 14

Day 14
It is safe to say that yesterday was one of the least fun days in CR and today was one of the most!!! Dare I say the best? We woke up and took a cab to The Springs Resort & Spa. It was recent host to The Bachelor. It might be the best place on Earth. 

MK, Susan and Liz were scheduled to zip line at 2 but upon arriving to The Springs, they immediately starting working on changing their zip line adventure to tomorrow. We asked our cab to come back for them at 1:30 so they could make their appointment. The front desk called the number from his card and told him we would no longer be needing him. We explore the springs perdidos (the lost springs) and all the other springs on the property - there were tons raging from all different depths and temperatures. 

We had one 15 minute downpour today while we were in the springs but it was incredible to be in the warm water with the cool Costa Rican rain coming down. Finally the clouds parted and we had sunshine for the rest of the afternoon and could even see to the top of the volcano. While we were heading up to lunch, we run into our cab driver. Uhh..What? He said he was there to pick us up. Liz and I in our most forceful and angry Spanish tell him that the hotel called the number from his card and said we wouldn't need a ride 5 minutes after he dropped us off. 5 minutes of very uncomfortable Spanish exchanges (him telling us that we must have called the wrong number, and that we should pay him anyways). Finally, I yelled "pura vida, no pasa nada" as we all shimmied into the Dama's bathroom. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the various springs, sauna and swim-up pool bar. We went to a delicious sushi dinner at the resort before hopping in a cab and heading home. Tomorrow we head to the Baldi Springs Resort & the girls are going zip-lining in the longest, highest, (prob scariest) zip line in Costa Rica. Wish them luck!!

Today was great. No way to really describe, just be jealous of the pictures. I love Costa Rica!!

Day 13

We had out last sunset in Manuel Antonio at Jefe's. iQue triste!

Oh boy. Where do I even begin about today? We sadly said hasta luegs to Kaiti this morning as she hopped on a bus to head to San Jose to then fly back to the US of A. It wasn't long after her departure that we had to say goodbye to the rest of our friends at Hotel Plinio - Ceasar, Carmen & Cristina were our mini family who took care of us for almost our entire stay in CR so far.

Our taxi miraculously arrived on time (not on 15-to-20-minutes late tico time). There wasn't enough room for all of our luggage and our 5 bodies in the car, so the taxista just threw Kim and my bag on top on the SUV. We stood their waiting for the dude to strap the luggage down, but he then quickly shoved us into the car. I asked Ceasar if he was going to strap them down and they both laughed at me. So we drove the 10 minutes to the airport, which by the way you would never guess it was an airport driving by. There was no security - just barbed wire looped around a waist-high fence and a $2 entrance fee into the airport.

The "terminal" consisted of plastic patio furniture, 2 reservation desks and a microwave which they advertised as "fast food available". We approached one of the reservation desks and proceeded to check in. The process consisted of us handing over our passport, weighing our checked bags, weighing our carry ons, then weighing OURSELVES. What? Yes, we had to be weighed along with our baggage to make sure that the plane could handle it. As we're checking in, the ticket-agent-lady that was helping us yells "ah! my plane is going to leave without me!" and runs out and jumps on a plane. Another ticket agent pops up to hand-write our boarding passes.

An hour passes and it's 11:23, our flight is supposed to leave at 11:35 where's the plane? Literally, 5 minutes before we were supposed to take off, it lands. The pilots get off, walks into the terminal and says let's go and welcome aboard. The plane is smaller than a "special" short-school-bus (http://www.natureair.com/natureair-fleet-information.aspx).

The seats were like sitting in a little tykes kitchen chars. There was no door to the cockpit. Oh boy. Our 18-passenger tin can takes off and we're all trying not to panic.

Kim filled our heads with things like "going over turbulence in the air is just like hitting a pot hole or speed bump in your car." My white knuckles gripped the seat in front of me as my right hand fanned me with the safety information card. It was a good 90* in the plane but I was both shivering and sweating. It was really cool to get a canopy tour of Costa Rica in a small plane, however, I am being completely serious when I say that this flight was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Susan yelled the "F" bomb as we dropped, shifted, and tossed about like in a bad undertow. Multiple times. We could feel every breeze that was in the air that morning.

It was so scary. We landed and just about kissed the ground when we got off. Our pilots unloaded the plane as we tried to stop shaking. Did I mention we have to fly 3 more times while we're here on the same kind of plane? We're not looking forward to it. Upon trying to exit the airport, we are herded into a line where we had to pay an exit fee. What gives? I'm fully certain that if there is something that the Costa Ricans can charge for, they do it. I snottily asked the desk man in my most distasteful Spanish accent, why there was a tax to leave the airport when we already paid for a flight and other taxes included in the fare. He said that the airport is private, as are most in CR, and that we have to pay. ANNOYED!! We hop in a cab and arrive at our hostel to find that my hostels.com booking confirmation number and confirmed reservation was no good, despite having paid a deposit. We took this as a sign from Jesus Cristo himself to encourage us to find a uber-posh luxury hotel. Despite being "low/green season" everywhere seemed to be booked! Ugh. An hour of being on the phone and internet trying to find a new place, the lady at our original hotel moves some reservations arounds and gives us the "hostel" suite for the 5 of us which has 5 beds and 5 cots. We are planning on staying here 2 nights, then hitting up the Baldi Springs Hotel (http://www.arenal.net/hotel/baldi-hotel/index.html)for our last night here. In conclusion today was rough and we're all exhausted and ready for bed even thought it's only 5:10 here.