Last night there was a crazy loud storm that was thrashing water everywhere and booming thunder and lightening but the morning was this beautiful fog covered wonderland so the slightly sleepless night was worth it. I have been so excited here, they actually serve pancakes for breakfast, along with of course beans and rice, but the unlimited pancakes are better than IHOP quality. After breakfast we got on another boat ride to Corovado to take a 2 hour nature hike and another little hike to a waterfall. The hike wasn't very vigorous, which anyone who has ever gone on a hike with me knows is a great thing, and we got to see all kinds of wildlife! I got to see some poison dart frogs, which lay their eggs either in the water or on leaves above the water and when the tadpoles hatch they either drop into the water from the leaf and start to develop or the mother collects them on her back and takes them where they need to go. It all just depends on what species they are but we actually got to see one carrying its tadpoles! We also saw a Ibis Blanco, some Howler monkeys, a ton of Macaws, some Toucans, an Owl Butterfly, and lots and lots of different kind of vegetation.

Owl Butterfly

Look at the buttress roots!!!

White Ibis

Macaw

Leaf-cutter ant hill

Im not one to go on about plants but the animals were so cool. We also got to see a leaf-cutter ant home. These ants were a favorite of my Ecology teachers and for good reasons. They are farmers :) They gather plant leaves and take them home to a whole underground nest of fungus. They feed the fungus the leaves and in turn they feed on the fungus. The fungus farms can get to be really large and the ants take extremely good care of them with little ant  babysitters. Along the beach here there are hermit crabs EVERYWHERE!!! As some of you know, I freaking love hermit crabs so I am in crab heaven! They are on the beach, climbing the trees, all over all the buildings, its great. We have even been fortunate enough to see clumps of hermit crabs feeding and it just looks like a big happy crab orgi.

Our tour guide was nicknamed Tico so he was with us on the boat and told us all about the history and mapped the area out on a sand map for us.

Tico the tour guide

 After our hike and lunch at some random hotel on the waters edge, we played a big game of soccer and I just have to say, I was literally the worst person on either team. Not that that will surprise many of you, sports have never really been my forte but I honestly surprised myself with my lack of skill. But it was still a lot of fun :) We boated back to our hotel and I took a walk along the beach collecting little tid bits for my mom (I miss you mom!!!) while rocking out to my Ipod. So far, another pretty great day and we havent even had dinner yet!!!

(P.S. this was all written yesterday but the internet here is really sketchy so I had to wait until today to post)