Rock View Lodge and La Fortuna Pictures

Hi!

Long time no see :-) I just didn't really feel like updating yesterday, sorry. But anyways, Stacey and I had a lovely weekend at the Rock View Eco-Lodge which is probably the only thing around here which you could describe as luxurious. All of our meals were provided and were absolutely delicious! It was great to get a significant amount of fresh food and we even got soup and dessert at dinner which was a treat. We spent our days either hanging out on our porch in the hammock or by the pool reading or listening to ipods. We also got to eat many of our meals with the owner: a british man named Colin who has been living in Guyana since 1984. This weekend he also had a couple visiting him from Georgetown who seemed to be very influential people (the head of the bank!). From their conversations at our meals it seems like the 3 of them were in a social circle of Guyana which includes everyone of importance. From referring to all the politicians by first name, to talking about when this person or that person stayed with them it was definitely a unique experience. They were interested in hearing about our project and how we came to be here and everything. Colin is in fact a trustee here at Bina Hill and it was interesting to hear his perspective of how things work and about all the people we've been talking/answering to since we arrived.

So I realize I should probably be adding pictures of my weekend right now, but I didn't bring my camera to the office with me today and don't really feel like going to get it, so instead I'm going to show you pictures of my time in La Fortuna.
This is maybe the bottom third of the waterfall that I went to see. You can see how big it is because there are little specks to the right of it which are actually people. You could swim in the lake, but not get very close to the actual waterfall because it was WAY too strong.
A toucan! I saw and heard toucans all the time while I was in Costa Rica, but this was the closest I ever got to one. Actually at a look-off for the waterfall.
This is Volcan Arenal, the main reason most people come to La Fortuna. This is the best view of it I got, which was during my drive out to the rapelling tour I did (of which you already saw the pictures). I did go on a tour that took me to the volcano where I could see Lava, but it was pretty much just a little line of red in the distance and didn't look like anything in a picture. Pretty cool, but I can't show it here. I may have mentioned this already, but apparently there is a volcano in Guatamala that lets you get right up to the lava. So close that they roast marshmallows on it! Now THAT would be cool :-)
The other stop on my volcano tour was at the free hotsprings. Here is a picture of me taken by my tour guide. Like I described before, it was pretty much a hot river. Kinda cool. Also notice how white I am. I am by no means that white anymore :-) Although, I can't say I'm spending too much time in the sun here in Guyana so I might be this white again before I get home.
My final activity in La Fortuna was the hike up Cerro Chato the morning before I left. This is a good representation of the hike. Closest to the bottom of this picture is often what it was like with random roots at irregular intervals that sort of-sometimes acted like steps. Then there were areas more like the top of the picture which were actual man-made steps which were not very well maintained so while that was nice in some areas, it didn't really help much in others.
What I got at the top of the hike: a lake in the crater of the volcano :-) Quite beautiful for the 10 minutes I had before the clouds completely surrounded me, and also I nice refreshing swim before heading back down.
I had a lot of fun making this one. It is a combination of 6 or 7 pictures I took on the way down Cerro Chato of what the view was like. I believe if you click on it you can get a bigger view. If not I apologize, you're going to have to take my word for it that it was beautiful :-)

That's all for today!
Talk to you later,
Kaila