Day 2- By Bill Becker

This morning came bright and early. My alarm went off at 6am, and it seemed like I had only been asleep for a few minute but the promise of a delicious cup, or 4..., of Costa Rican coffee. Right as I left my dorm I was greeted to the sound of small wings flapping and flying towards me and assuming they were giant bugs, like usual, I freaked out. However they turned out to be a group of erratic hummingbirds, thankfully nobody saw me freak out... Though they know now... As I was nearing the breakfast room I saw a Toucan which was one goals for the trip so as of now there is only one animal that I still want to see, a sloth! Breakfast this morning was similar to home with scrambled eggs, toast, and fruit but there was still the Costa Rican staple of white rice and black beans which I have grown to love, though I'm sure I'll be sick of it by Friday. Following breakfast we split into two groups, one group when to the school while another, the group I was I'm stayed at the Soltis Center for our service project. The half of us who stayed behind then split in half again with half of us went on a rainforest hike while the remaining people helped the center to begin work on a garden. The work on the garden involved intense physical labor, including digging stairs out of the side of the hill from the clay soil as well as digging numerous holes for planting. By the end of it we were covered in mud, exhausted, and counting our blisters. Finally after a short rest we went out on our adventure into the rainforest where we cut out own path through the vegetation and up a waterfall. On the way up we got to see the Costa Rica that everyone imagines, everything was wet and green and life surrounded you. Under every rock or leaf there was a new creature to discover in fact on the way up we found a very feisty freshwater crab who seemed to think that we were trying to take his area of the waterfall. Once we reached the top we looked back and saw how amazing the view was, needless to say there were many photos taken! At the top was the source of the water and being as tempted as I was by how delicious our guide, Albert, made the water out to be I couldn't help myself and I sampled the fresh Costa Rican rainforest water. The deliciousness of the water surpassed any worry of getting sick from drinking it. On the way down Albert spotted many more animals including a tiny gecko about two inches long and a small brown camouflaged in the foliage on the forest floor. How he spotted them I'll never know, in fact I am slightly suspicious that they were plants haha. After getting back to the Soltis Center all of us were back together again, and we had a few minutes to clean up before lunch. Lunch was some amazing fried chicken with the classic beans and rice but the real star of the meal was the dessert, vanilla ice cream. Though it might sound mundane and ordinary the ice cream was like nothing I have ever had before. It was made not with vanilla flavoring or high fructose corn syrup but with real vanilla extract and sugar cane. Needless to say I ate way more than I should have... Ohh well it was completely worth it. Immediately after lunch we all piled into vans and began our 45 minute drive to Arenal Volcano. On the way we played games to pass the time, specifically we played a game called mofia where everyone seemed to think that it was funny to kill me off first. It was still fun though getting to know everyone outside of the rainforest. Along the way, we stopped to view some wild life that appeared along the side of the road including the nest of the Montezuma Oropendola bird, a family of approximately 10 Coatimundi, which are an extremely raccoon style animal that I known to jump in your car in hopes of food, and finally out guide spotted A SLOTH in the top of a tree as we sped by, how he saw it I'll never know, but just to say we got to see a sloth while in Costa Rica is amazing. When we arrived at the volcano we began the hike up the path and we soon realized we were not in fact hiking to the top of the volcano but to the top of a neighboring hill where you had a clear unobstructed view of not only the volcano but a near by lake, as a result of the picturesque scenery around us numerous photos were taken, some serious to make our travel to a major landmark on Costa Rica while most were fun over exaggerated photos which reflect the amount of joy we were having. On the way back to the Soltis Center most of us slept off the exhaustion of the day. When we arrived back we were immediately treated to dinner which consisted of a piece of fish as well as the standard rice and beans, again a delicious and well appreciated meal after the long day. Finally we were given time to rest and get ready because half of the group, who had not gone last night, were about to head out on a night hike. The night hike began at 7:30 and lasted a little over an hour. On the night hike the first thing that we saw was a cat eye snake which was hiding in the trees near a frog pond, then further down by the pond was another snake which was a Yellow Blunt snake which we got to hold! Nearing the end of the lake we say a cluster of things in one group, first we saw the Jesus Christ Lizard which can run across the water, then we say Red Eye Tree Frog eggs which were clustered together on the underside of a leaf, finally we saw a Leaf Praying Mantis which had camouflaged itself on a leaf. We moved on from there and hidden in the foliage on the ground was a common tree frog. Then we saw two of the coolest animals that we had seen all day, a Glass Belly Frog which had until this point never been documented on the Soltis Center grounds, and lastly we saw the extremely poisonous snake the Ferdiland. After this point we headed back to the common area of the Solti Center where we met for our reflections on the day. Our second day in Costa Rica was an amazing one; albeit a long and exhausting one but every minute of exhaustion is worth it ten times over for this once in a life time experience, I can only hope that everyday here is this great!