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Another action packed day and my dogs is barkin' tonight, baby. Well, actually my calves but whatever. Today after breakfast, we took a drive north to La Fortuna where we did a little exploring and a little shopping (I bought a shoulder bag. Honestly, why am I buying a bag but I couldn't resist.) Look how cute it is and all hand embroidered and I just love the colors. Feliz colores, no?

Anyhoo, La Fortuna is a nice little town with a beautiful town square and people on holiday everywhere. In fact, all of Costa Rica is on holiday. We could hear the singing coming from the church while we walked around town.

Lu and I monkeying around haha

Arenal Volcano as the backdrop

Tom in dreads 

We had a date for a float trip and some time to kill so after checking out the town, we drove up towards the Arenal Volcano to see what we could see.

And what we saw was Daniel, whacky and wonderful Daniel. Lu was looking for a hammock or ten and here he was, weaving one right here (and unlike Tom's, those are real dreads by the way. He has not cut his hair for 27 years.) So much fun and we are going back to see him again tomorrow. I found my Spanish and it was fun to talk and joke and laugh  with him.
We also went to a butterfly and hummingbird garden but they wanted $13 to go in for an hour and Lu put her foot down - rightly so. But we did see these bird's nests there hanging from the pavilion. Here is one of them. Wow. (That is a saddle sitting underneath it apropos of nothing.)

Okay, so the float trip. We went to this hacienda to put in to the Rio Pena Blanca right behind it. I was struck by her hanging baskets. Normally, one sees bright flowers or bromeliads, but la senora had little hanging cactus trays. Check it out.

I was a bit cranky (oh, just a leeeetle bit) when I saw the boat. It was a small inflatable, nowhere near big enough to carry six people for six miles down the river - although it did. And it was not comfortable BUT, the scenery and David the guide more than made up for the discomfort.
Now, I swear I am not making this up but just to name a few, this is what we saw during our trip down river, and this is in addition to a gazillion kinds of birds and a double gazillion types of plants and trees (all very cool in their own right) Ok, lizards, including quite a few Jesus Christ Lizards (walks on water), iguanas, a cayman, toucans (you know, the fruit loop birds) a sloth (three toed) and howler monkeys! Here is a picture of our guide, David, looking up into the canopy at the monkeys. We saw the alpha male, babies, mothers carrying babies. David, a mild mannered guy, started making this guttural noise and smacking his paddle on the water. Scared the crap out of me.

Well, they answered, boy did they answer! The racket was amazing. At one point, they started flinging poo at us - well actually I think they were more positioning themselves right above us and letting go. Seriously, David said they get PO'd and let go on the unsuspecting below them and he told us to get out of the way fast as it came raining down! What an experience.

Here is the caiman, about 4 ft long.

I didn't get good pictures of the monkeys because they blend with the canopy when you just have a little digital point and shoot. Can you see him?

Here are some more pics of the river. Just beautiful.

At one point, David offloaded us and the gear, flipped the raft over and proceeded to cut up and set out watermelon, pineapple and some just picked bananas. Is this paradise or what???

Ok, these two. Our raft mates. Well, these young ladies are from Calgary. They are seasoned travelers, having been seven weeks in Cambodia/Laos/Thailand and during that time, due to some trick of fate, a joke, having these wedding dresses made for them over there. They wore them for a week of adventure travel, tubing, etc. and then of course, what could be more natural than they should wear them for their Costa Rica float trip? Alrighty then . . .  

Fun Canadian senoritas, these two. And just a wee bit cuh-razy! We got back to La Fortuna too late to get to Luna Nueva in time for dinner so stopped off at a local place in town (mistake!) and got home with the light of the moon shining down. I am in love with Costa Rica.

So, before I turn in for the night, I will show you some of the flora I see on my walk about in the morning when the sun comes up.