Jeremy and I decided to sleep in a little and take a trip to the waterfall and take a look at some interesting shops we read about in Lonely Planet. If I havent said it already, this book was a life saver...I lot of stuff we saw we read about in LP, and probably wouldnt have given it a second glance. 
We took the taxi to the waterfall, which didnt take too long and was pretty cheap, the entrance fee to get in not so much. I mean I guess it was only $10 per person, but really, to just take a 20 minute hike was $20 bucks...I would definitely do it again, cause the waterfall was awesome, but I grumbled a little bit about the price. The hike was easy getting to the waterfall because it was all down hill, it maybe took 10-15 minutes to get down. You definitely need good soles because it was slippery, it wasnt too crowded though, which was nice. Their were two waterfalls down there, both of which were gorgeous. We brought bathing suits but the water was far to cold to take a swim..there were a couple people milling around in the water, but we decided not to. The hike back up took a little bit longer, but again wasnt too bad. On the way back home we walked back to a cool place we read about, Neptune's House of Hammocks! This place was so cool. Its run by this weird bohemian Costa Rican hippy guy, that (Im sure) was high as a kite. We couldnt leave that place without getting a hammock. First off, they have kitty hammocks, and human hammocks, both of which were handmade..and cheap! We ended up getting one sit-down type, and a small one for Ron, all for less than $50USD. I think the Ron hammock was probably for my entertainment then anything else...I cant imagine Ron ever liking this thing. I think hes going to step onto it, flip it over and run away hissing.
The tour was jammed packed with a bunch of stuff to do, a hike around Arenal, hanging bridges, tons of wildlife, waterfalls, the observation deck, tree frogs, hot springs, and mud...all for around $45 per person. We jumped on it, we didnt realize though that the tour started at 2:00...it was 1:30. We booked the trip, ran down to Super Christian for some snacks, and back to the hostel for a change of clothes. The van picked us up in front of our hostel, and we were off! Jeremy was excited because the tour guide was Italian, I was excited because it wasnt raining. There were a couple other couples about our age that were taking the tour too, one couple was from Denmark, the other from Germany, and Austria. The Austrian couple were interesting (to say the least), she (clearly) didnt wear a bra which Im sure we all noticed right away when she bent over and we could all see down her shirt. Needless to say, Jeremy LOVED her as well!
We spent about a couple hours hiking around Arenal. We saw a ton of wildlife while we were walking around. The hike wasnt too intense and was mainly on a concrete path. The hike to the little waterfall was really neat and we even saw a bunch of spider monkey swinging around above us. We decided not to swim, but the Austria couple had other plans. He decided he wanted to take a dip...without his clothes. It was like a train wreck, I could not help but watch. He literally just dropped trou, bare bottom in front of everyone. 
On the way back to the van we saw a cool ant eater in a tree. Thats when it started to rain, and I mean rain. But then it started to thunder and lightning to the point where it seriously touched ground a couple 100 yards away from us. I seriously screamed, and possibly crapped myself as did Jeremy, Ive never been so scared from lighting in my life...it was close too, like deaf for a couple minutes because of the noise close. I thought it would be a good idea at this point to grab my umbrella, as it was really coming down and I was getting pretty wet. Smart move I thought...in hind sight, not so much. I dont know what I thinking...really holding a lightning rod when its thundering/lightning seemed like a smart idea at the time
The rain slowed up a bit and we hung out a saw a glimpse of the volcano at the observation deck, and drank some yummy coffee. I swear, I hate black coffee but this was probably the best coffee Ive ever had...it might have been because I was cold (the first time on this trip) and a little wet. It was nice to kick back for a second and relax without it raining. We met up with another group of hikers, and drove back down of the mountain to enjoy the hot springs. First we stopped on the side of the road to check out the red eyed tree frog..this is the frog you see all over town on souvenirs etc etc. He was super cute and he hopped around the inside of the car when we passed him around. We stopped at Tabacon Hot Springs, one of the really nice hot springs in town...and promptly walked across the street. I came prepared....already wearing my bathing suit, the Austrian couple not so much. She just took her top off and put on her suit right on the side of the road. I wish I was that modest! LOL. A lot of tour guides wont tell you that there is a free hot springs right next to Tabacon, of course they would rather have you buy the expensive Tabacon that runs more then our whole tour combined. The hot springs were so cool, and were probably one of the most favorite things we did in Costa Rica.
The river is right on the other side of the street, behind a gate, but its pretty easy to spot since its across the way from Tabacon. The river had a few people in it already, but there was still plenty of room for the 10 of us. The river had a couple secluded little spa type areas were you could just sit and relax, but the best part was underneath the tiny waterfall, were there was a natural sauna. The tour guides were awesome, and brought us some vodka they tried to convince us was "Costa Rican Firewater," it was basically a 1/5 of Vodka and Fanta, we were in heaven! They also brought some mud from the volcano and we all had mud masks. I swear my face has never been so happy. We hung out for about an hour and half in the 100 degree water, and were definitely reluctant to get out.
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