When we got to Arenal, we stayed at the Observatory Lodge, which has an amazing view of volcano. It was so incredible to be looking at an active volcano from so close! We went with the lodge's guide to take a walk on the old lava flow. Once we climbed to the top, our guide had us sit down so he could tell us the story of when the volcano erupted in 1968. As he was telling the story the volcano was behind him and it started erupting!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!! But it was only a small eruption, not like lava spewing everywhere and having to run for our lives. It just had lava rocks and ash coming out of the top, with dark smoke pouring out. You could also hear the eruption, which was an unbelievable thing to listen to.
 
That night when we were driving back to the lodge, we stopped at a different viewpoint to see the lava flowing down the volcano. I said to my Mom that I've waited for a lot of things in suspense before, but I never thought I'd be waiting for a volcano to erupt! There wasn't another big eruption like the one we saw during the day, but we did see a bunch of red lava rock slides, which was like watching something you'd see on the National Geographic channel.
 
This picture is one of the rock slides we saw. There was another one that completely spread down the entire side of the volcano. The Arenal Volcano was definitely one of the coolest things we have seen on this whole trip. And around Arenal, there were other really fun things we did, like going white water rafting and swimming in the hot springs heated by the volcano.
 
The last place we went to in Costa Rica was the Osa Peninsula. It's real tropical rainforest there. We stayed in a beach cabana and didn't even have to leave our porch to see all four types of monkeys they have in Costa Rica. We also saw lots of scarlet macaws there, which are an amazing type of parrot.
 
When we were in Osa we went on hiking, but this wasn't like any other hike we've ever done because along the way, we climbed up a 400 year old strangler fig tree. Our guide had safety ropes set up and we were attached to a harness, so if we fell, we wouldn't get hurt. The coolest part was getting to jump off after reaching the top (60 feet up) swinging through the air like Tarzan.


 
The other cool thing we did on the hike was learn how to rappel. We had a safety harness attached to a fixed rope and we pushed off the rock wall with our feet. We had to keep our right hand behind our back to let out the rope and that guided us down the line. If we didn't do that, we'd have gone "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!" all the way down the wall. I did really well and didn't lose my balance. We went down a 40' and 100' wall. It was fun and scary at the same time.
 
I also got to go surfing again in Osa after having learned in Hawaii when the trip started. I did really well this time.  
 
I really liked Costa Rica and all the fun, exciting things we did there. I hope I can come back someday.