So last night was interesting. We have all been nonstop since Friday so we were really tired and fell asleep around 9 pm. I was in a great sleep, probably one of the best I’ve had in awhile , when I heard a phone ringing.  It takes me awhile to realize it is the hotel phone on the table right next to me. I am finally able to answer it and I’m still in this weird sleep feeling. When I answer the phone I hear “Hello, security, checking about your door locked?” It is hard for me to understand him, not so much because he has an accent but because really I am still asleep. I see Kelsey looking at me, looking concerned as I reply back, “Are my doors locked?” The guy says “Si” and something about door lock again. What he is saying is not registering.  I’m annoyed, I’m tired, and now I’m feeling  a little weird. I end the conversation by saying “yes our doors our locked” and I hung up the phone.

Now I’m feeling awake. It’s pitch black. Thoughts are running through my mind. What did this guy mean? Is something going on outside? Should I be worried? I’m laying there looking out the giant window that is covered with a sheer curtain and I’m thinking, “what could be out there?” Finally, I notice Kelsey is awake and I can tell she is thinking the same thing I am. She is freaking out. This is how scary movies begin.  Don is the least concerned one and he is basically back asleep. Kelsey and I are freaking out, but quietly. What should we do?! Why is someone claiming to be security asking if our doors are locked at 11 pm?! After a few minutes we get Don to call back. He explains we are bit concerned about a phone call we got. The guy explained that he was calling to check if our key cards for the room worked since earlier they were not. THAT WAS OVER 3 HOURS AGO!  We went to the front desk after swimming because our stupid key cards to open the room didn’t work. The guy reset them and we went on our way and got into our room. The guy explained it was just a routine call to make sure we were okay. I was kind of pissed now because what the heck did they think we were doing for the past 3 hours, just sitting outside our room?! I was also mad to be awoken when I was sleeping so good. Crazy!!! Maybe we jumped to conclusions too fast but I don’t trust anyone!

So this morning we woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast. The breakfast at Volcano Lodge was pretty good and it’s included in the price. We took a few pictures of the pool area.

After breakfast we decided to drive to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park. This is a park in the middle of the forest that has six suspension bridges. It is pretty cool.  The longest bridge was 97 meters, which is 318 feet. The bridges were of various heights but most of them were pretty tall making you feel like you were walking among the highest trees. The tallest ones were 45 meters or 147 feet.  People can choose to take a tour guide to Mistico or just walk it themselves. We chose to walk it ourselves because it’s cheaper. I think a ticket for the hike was about $20. It takes about 2 hours and it is pretty easy walk. The hardest part was going down a steep area to get to a waterfall, but you don’t have to go there. The other hardest part was getting over the fear of the suspension bridges. These bridges seemed to move a lot. It advised that only 15 people be on them at once. They would get really shakey. At one point I thought Kelsey was just going to stop in the middle, but we got her through. I have to admit I was scared too but the views were awesome. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife but we did see a lot of birds, a small snake, and two pretty big spiders. Here’s some pictures from the Mistico Hanging Bridges.

 

After the hike we needed to get lunch. We wanted to try this German Bakery that we kept seeing on the drive to Arenal so we headed towards what we thought was it. We got to the place but it was called Los Heroes. It was still European food but it was not the German bakery. Still, though the place was very cool looking and the food was good. I had the schnitzel, Kelsey had the goulash, and Don had some kind of brat. Everything was good.

After lunch we came back to the hotel to check out the pool. It was awesome. We spent most of the afternoon here and happy hour began at 4 pm which made it even better. 2 for 1 drinks! We talked with some people from Pennsylvania that told us about some free hot springs that we might check out and also about the La Fortuna Waterfall that we plan on going to tomorrow. After swimming and checking out the hot springs at the Volcano Lodge we got cleaned up and ventured out to break #1 rule of driving in Costa Rica: No driving after dark. We went to La Fortuna and ate at a bar called Kazan. It was your typical bar food. Kelsey had nachos, I had chicken fingers, fries, and a salad and right now I can’t remember what Don had. Everything was delicious. Great bar food. We walked around a bit and then went back. Driving at night was scary at first but it’s really just one road to town.