A Day in La Fortuna

 By Katelin Walker

Today we left our hotel and headed to La Fortuna waterfall. The hike to the waterfall wasn't what I was expecting. There were hundreds of stairs going down and I was already dreading coming up those. 

Once we got to the base of the waterfall it was wonderful. The waterfall was loud and powerful. There were many small rainbows that reflected off the waterfall. The biggest flaw that I saw at this location was that it was very touristy. I felt that it was difficult to take a picture without someone else in your picture. While we were here most of the group spent most of their time in the water surrounding the waterfall, but I spent my time with our tour guide, Madri. He pointed out a hummingbird nest that he had seen back in March that was still there and he showed me pictures of the nest from that time. We spent the rest of the trip talking about his favorite places to go in Costa Rica and his time in the Olympics.

After the long hike up we made our way to the zip lines. While I was very excited for the zip line I was also very nervous because I'm scared of heights. We had about a 20 minute tractor ride to the place that we were given a safety demonstration that was followed by another steep 15 minute hike to our first line. I began to get more nervous as I watched our entire group go before me. Having two professors ni the back of the wine with me was very helpful. They kept encouraging me and reminding me that I can do hard things. Without them I don't think that I could have done the zip line. When it was my turn I continuously told myself "I can do hard things" while they were putting me on the line. As the instructor let go and I went down the line I felt so free. I found an unkown love for zip lining. 
 

To end the day, Madri took us to a hotel that had volcano heated hot springs and water slides. It was nice to spend the evening relaxing after such a long taxing day.