I kissed a monkey... and I liked it.

I finished my training on the road today. We went from San Jose to La Fortuna for a couple days. There we met up with one of our local providers, Desafio. They have the coolest office and are some of the friendliest people around. They have a ton of stuff available to do, and all GAP tour leaders get to do them all for free! Basically, whenever I get to La Fortuna I don´t have to lift a finger. I just call Desafio and they do my whole job for me, and then let me tag along on all of their badass trips. We went on a hike around the Volcano Arenal, and then relaxed in the Baldi hot springs at the base of the volcano. At the hot springs they have quite possibly the most dangerous waterslide in the world, but damn it was fun. We also visited an animal sanctuary and I made friends with a spider monkey named Jessica.

Next we went to Monteverde. Its a small town in the mountains, and to get there you have go for about three hours by van-boat-van, and its all dirt roads up through the mountains. It was such a beautiful drive. The weather there is really harsh. It is cold, windy and raining most of the year. We met up with some more of our local hotel and tour operators and took a guided tour through the cloudforest.

Next stop was Quepos/Manuel Antonio. It was nice to be back! This was the city that I lived in for about a month. As we sat and enjoyed a peaceful lunch at our hotel, a sloth slowly climbed inside the restaurant. A guy from the restaurant started hitting it with a broom to get it to leave, but he just fell asleep while being beaten with a broom. It turns out that Sloths areunbelievably strong! It took three grown men - Peter, the Hotel Mangager, and I- to get this thing out of there without hurting it.

Today was the San Jose Festival of Lights. The whole city of San Jose was decorated in Christmas lights, and then there were fireworks all across town that rivaled anything that I have seen in the world. Tuanis!

I lucked out and got a sweet schedule. I have a week off before I start my first trip here in Costa Rica. Its the exact same route that I just ran. But... I found out my next assignment! I will be done with that trip on New Year's eve, and then I have three days off before I start route training. The route that I am training on is the Volcano Trail, a 22-day trip that runs through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and then ends in Costa Rica. The best part? I will have already finished my first trip, which means my contract has officially started... Which means I get paid to follow around another tour leader, tour ruins, go whitewater rafting, snorkel on Roatan Island, and sample as many local beers as possible.