After a 12 hour ferry boat ride, a 3 hour wait for the immigration office to open, an hour boat ride down the river Rio Frio, the painless Costa Rican immigration process, and another 5 hours of buses, I have finally arrived at Gringo Pete's hostel in La Fortuna, Costa Rica!!!! The main attraction here is Volcan Arenal ... Central Americas most active volcano which has been erupting daily with spectacular shows of lava and exploding rocks since 1968. The problem is getting to see it. Everything in Costa Rica seems geared toward higher prices for the vacationing tourist, not the budget concious backpacker. In addition, the problem with being in the rain forest... well, is all the damn rain. Clouds blanket the mountain for most days of the year and seeing anything is mere chance.

I celebrated my birthday on the 6th with some folks from the hostel who bought me some beers and as I write this today, we are waiting for the skies to clear so we can get to a good spot to view the volcano. Hopefully, my next entry will have some impressive photos of an erupting volcano ... even if I have to take pictures of the post cards!!!