Crapido was Tested Today

When we rented the car from Hertz, we quadrupled the price we thought we were going to pay with a multitude of insurance options. When you've heard that there are potholes that are large enough to swallow a car in Costa Rica, you simply shake your head and accept each and every insurance offered without objection....because if you don't, you know that you will undoubtedly need the one you did not get. And for those of you who haven't heard, we did actually have to cash in that insurance this past January on our trip to Breckenridge with the Kleese/Byers girls when Joel high centered the Ford Taurus on a snow bank (thanks again to the nice man with a winch for pulling Joel and his BFF Kenny off).

Anyway, I digress. Today, as we began our Costa Rican adventure, we thought on more than one occasion that we would need that extra tire/windshield insurance that we paid for and that we would be happy we paid extra to lower our deductible to $200 from $1,000. We started off venturing in to the town of Fortuna. Too bad there wasn't any insurance riders for head on collisions from driving the wrong way down a one way street because we would have needed that today. Thankfully El Capitan noticed before said collision and turned Crapido around stat. After picking up some snacks, beverages and beer, we headed up to our daily activities. That is where Crapido was really tested. Our 10 km path up to the canopy tour was what I would call off roading and what Costa Rican's would call a day in the country. I was sure that we would blow at least one if not all tires, cash in on that windshield insurance and break an axel. Thankfully, with El Capitan's skillful manuvering, we made it to the canopy tour without any of such setbacks.

The canopy tour was a lot of fun. At first, I was a little nervous at first about an equipment malfunction, but once we were up and going I forgot all about that. Joel, fearless as ever, did not have any such concerns. The views were so breathtaking you just tried to take it all in....in the roughly 28 to 48 seconds you had between platforms.

After a the canopy tour, we went to hike in the Arenal Volcano National Park. As we hiked to the site of the 92' lava flow, we heard the volcano rumbling (did I mention that it is an active volcano). Danger signs were posted warning hikers that you are entering a dangerous area, but they wouldn't really let us enter if they thought there would be a big eruption, right?? Once we got to the 92' lava flow (see pic below), which looks like a big pile of blackish rocks, I was a little creeped out hoping that there would not be a 08' lava flow as the volcano rumbles frequently and shoots out rock that you can see tumbling down the side. I stayed toward the beginning of the flow as Joel ventured on--I figured that once you've seen one pile of black rocks you've seen them all.

As we got back to Crapido, the rain really started to come down. We traversed the "country" roads without incident and winded down in our deck jacuzzi that overlooks the volcano (from a nice safe distance). Tonight, the rain has kept on keeping on--it is still raining. We felt pretty lucky that we were able to get our day in before the down pour.