Costa Rica Trip

[Punky]

  Just got back from a Cost Rica trip with Darrin from SD&T.
It was definitely a fun trip, except maybe for all the seat time on the bus getting from San Jose, CR to Playa Hermosa.
  Arrived Sunday and after a 2 hour bus ride spent the night at Montana del Fuego (Mountain of Fire) with, we found out in the morning, a view of Arenal Volcano.
  Monday after breakfast it was off to do some whitewater
rafting. Awesome. My wife, who from the time she heard we were going to be raft informed me she wouldn't be going, even enjoyed this. I'm sure she had visions of the rafting you see on TV, catagory 5s. This was more like catagory 2s.
After they fed us lunch it was time to head for Playa Hermosa and El Velero Resort. Six hours later we arrive and check in.
  Tuesday and Wednesday were diving days. Tuesday the first dive was interesting because of the larger fish on the Pacific. Puffer fish were all over the place like Sunfish in Minnesota. Saw some Rays and other fish, I don't know the names. Second dive we saw 2 Whitetip Sharks and a Sea Turtle and Puffers. Wedsday was more of the same except no Sharks. The visibility on both days was 30 to 40.
The dive master told us on the best days you only have about 50 feet.
  Thursday it was off to the Zipline Canopy tour. This was a real blast. There were 9 different cables running from tree to tree of various distances and steepness. The shortest about 100 yards, the longest I think was 300 yards. They hook you up to the cable with a pulley and a safety line attached to the harness you are wearing. You also wear a pair of gloves with a 1/4" thick leather palm.
These gloves are your breaks. You rest the palm on the cable behind the pulley. To slow down or stop you pull down on the cable with the glove.
  Friday was a free day so we just vegged out by the beach most of the day. Darrin and I wanted to try surfing but at $110 apiece we decided to pass.
  Saturday was supposed to be another dive day but we passed on that and another couple, my wife, and I went on a cultural tour. We went to a coffee shop and learned how they roast coffee to the different roasts and flavors.
  Then to a fire dept. My wife is on the local fire dept so wanted to see what they had for equipment in Costa Rica
    Next stop a pottery shop to see how they make their pottery. After that lunch at the only solar powered organic restaurant in the Americas. Everything was cooked using solar power. Parabolic dishes that focused the heat from the sun on the pot of food suspeneded in the center or hot boxes that got up to 300 deg F.