Day 3: We woke up to this view from our hotel bedroom. They say that only 25% of the people that visit this area get to see the volcano because of cloud cover. I’m not sure if I believe this because we saw it almost every day but this was a beautiful view.

This was our biggest adventure day going from 8 am – 6 pm. First up, volcano hike. On our way to the hike, the driver spotted this Pit Viper by the side of the road.

Left: a before the hot sweaty hike. Right: in the middle of the hot sweaty hike. We hiked up a lava field and even at 9 am it was hot and oppressive but quite beautiful.

Then we walked downhill through a rain forest.

All of our tour guides were amazing and could spot wildlife quickly. These spider monkeys were not happy we were in their forest. The guide said sometimes they will break off branches and throw them at people and 5 minutes later that is exactly what this monkey did.

Next adventure, hike to the La Fortuna waterfall! It’s only 500 steps but look at it! And as soon as we started our hike down it started pouring down rain.

Quinn really wanted to swim in the waterfall’s pool so he and Don took a quick dip and then joined me a little bit downstream where the currents weren’t as strong.

Then it was back up those 500 steps. Fortunately there were hand rails and resting points all the way back up.

Then on to lunch at a local restaurant while the skies absolutely opened up and it poured.

Next adventure, Hanging Bridges. We had a beautiful view of the hazy volcano and you can see the steam coming out the right side at the very top.

Quinn thought we were super nerds for our rain gear but we were all pretty happy.

The path through the rain forest was about 2 miles long and we crossed 6 hanging bridges. It was super cool and a great ending to our adventurous day.