Day 6

At 8:30 this morning, we left for the hanging bridges and rain forest by the dam at Lake Arenal. When we arrived, we were greeted by a beautiful macaw just sitting on a post. It wasn't tethered to it or anything....it was just there as a part of nature. We took beautiful pictures of scenery  with the volcano from yesterday in the pictures. We broke off into smaller groups because the hanging bridges can only hold so much weight. 

We had wonderful tour guides who took us through the rain forest on hanging bridges and paths going up the mountain. Our main tour guide, Max, said that too often groups come to Costa Rica expecting to see monkeys because national geographic channel tells them they will! He just kept saying to us, don't be disappointed if you don't see monkeys. Most groups don't see them, so ease don't be disappointed. Not only did both of our groups see monkeys, but we saw 2 different kinds of monkeys! We saw spider monkeys traveling quickly through the trees (and just as a note, Mrs. Biddlecombe spotted those for our group!:) and we saw howler monkeys that were about 200 yards away from us eating lunch up in the trees. It was absolutely incredible. 

We saw snakes and frogs and birds and beautiful trees and views that we just can't imagine in Tennessee. We did a LOT of walking...uphill, downhill, on pretty intense paths. The girls were champs! Ask them about this hike...it was really neat!

From there, we went back to the hotel and packed to leave the beautiful lodge and go to the double tree to get ready to leave the next day.  We had a lovely lunch at the hotel (as a side note, the food on this trip was absolutely fantastic....all of it!) and then we went in to town for a little shopping! From there we loaded the bus and drove back to San Juan through the mountains over the scary roads. Our driver was a champ and everyone did a great job of sleeping a through it:) 

Our evening was very relaxed. A nice dinner at the double tree and after that we had a little bit of pow pow time with Dr. and Mrs. Biddlecombe. Dr. Biddlecombe asked the girls questions about 3 topics: Costa Rica itself, the musical aspect of the trip, and what they learned about each other. We had wonderful discussions about all three topics. All the girls spoke about one thing or another. They thought of things to say that we don't necessarily think of.  After that, it was ticket nominations and then prize winning. Gaby was our winner of the ticket prize! Yay Gaby! She actually leaves for Guatemala tomorrow instead of heading back with us. What a treat for her!

Tomorrow is our travel day home. Well be sure to blog one more time before the end. What a fantastic trip.