Good Morning, Friends.
It´s 9:52 and overcast in Costa Rica right now. Nate and I have made it from the capital, San Jose, to La Fortuna, a small town at the base of a huge active volcano. We spent the first few days of our trip in San Jose staying with Nate´s friend Adam. On night two, Adam took us to see Judas Priest as a wedding present. You´d be suprised by the amount of metalheads in Costa Rica. The day of the show we walked past dozens of kids wearing Judas Priest shirts. That night the stadium wasn´t exactly full, but there was a pretty large group of people there all shouting, "Hudas! Hudas! Ole ole ole ole ole!!". Believe it or not, this was my first actual metal show. It was like nothing I had experienced before. The set was long and super extravagent and we had a lot of fun. But I´ll let Nate give the details.
Now we´re in La Fortuna staying in a small hostel with a pretty good view of Volcàn Arenal. It´s the off season for tourism, so the town is really quiet right now. Yesterday we hiked to Catarata La Fortuna, a 210 foot waterfall in the jungle. The hike was long, steep and kind of shitty, but the falls were well worth it. We spotted lots of toucans, hundreds of fish and one really nasty spider. After the falls we headed to a free swimming hole just outside of town. It was beautiful. Water poured off of these huge, semicircular cliffs in to a deep pool that was great for swimming. There were some little Tico boys there doing some crazy jumps off the cliffs and a rope swing hanging from a tree. I didn´t want to get wet, but Nate jumped in a few times. We´re going to revisit the swimming hole today.
We´re both having a really great time. It´s been really refreshing to be in a place completely different from Provo. I feel like I´m on another planet. The cities look different, the mountains look different, everyone dresses and talks differently. It´s a little stressful being somewhere so unfamilliar, especially not speaking the language. It really puts you out of your comfort zone, which is part of having adventures, I guess. But I´m still incredibly excited to be here, and I´m really looking forward to the next few months of beaches and jungles.
I hope things are well back home.
xoxo
Kia
