We graduated! And the end of the trip

On Friday, instead of having normal classes, we had a weird schedule because the school doesn't have classes in the afternoon. That means that the school had double the amount of students we were used to. We started school with a cultural chat. Some people learned about legends, some learned about the provinces of Costa Rica, some got to study art and the environment and some played games. After our chat we had a big break where many people went souvenir shopping. We came back and took tests and did an evaluation of the school. Some people got done early and got to eat lunch before graduation; others had to wait until after graduation. At graduation, we received diplomas, had to say a few words (in Spanish of course!) to thank the teacher and say what they had learned. The professors said a few words, some students got prizes, and we got fruit. After graduation we had a little over an hour to kill before our hike. Our hike guide was none other than one of kayak guides, Heiner, so it was nice to see him again and chat with him. He took us up a mountain to a look out point where we took some beautiful pictures. Then we hiked down to a hidden beach and got to swim and take pictures and just explore. On Saturday, we got to go zip-lining, which here is called "canopy." We had to go in 2 groups because we were such a large group. The first group went at 7 am. We got geared up and were taken up to the place where we would get to zip-line. There were 10 lines and we only had to hike a few times between lines. We got to go down regular lines, got to hang upside down on one, got bounced on a different one, got to see the ocean on two and got an all natural snack in the middle. It was so much fun whizzing through the dry rainforest and seeing the great scenery! The second group went at 10:30 and got to see kuwatis - the first group only heard a bunch of howler monkeys. After zip-lining, we had free time for the rest of the day. Most people took advantage of the beautiful day and went swimming or just hung out on the beach. Our guide and friend Heiner was on a beach soccer team that was in the semi-finals. We got to watch some beach soccer (they lost in the final) and enjoy the day on the beach. We finished up our souvenir shopping and spent our last night with our families and packed for the next 2 days. We were sad to say good bye to Sámara but excited to see Arenal and go to the hot springs! We had a 7 am departure time for La Fortuna (the town at the base of Arenal) and it took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there. We stopped at the same restaurant/cafeteria that we stopped at on the way to Sámara, so we knew what they had and what we already wanted. Unfortunately, on the way to La Fortuna, we couldn't see the top of Arenal because it was covered by clouds. We never did get to see the top :( The kids were disappointed that they couldn't hike up the volcano, but since it is so active, only scientists are allowed up Arenal. Once we got to La Fortuna, we went to our hotel, changed, and got things ready for the rest of the day. We went on a nature hike and saw a poisonous frog, some crocodiles, and some sloths!!! It was hard to see the sloths, but we were excited to see them! Then we headed off in search of food - half of the group went to Burger King and the other half went to a soda (little restaurant) for a last authentic Costa Rican lunch. From there we went to the Baldi Hot Springs! We had about 4 hours there to relax, go down the water slides, and enjoy the tranquility of the hot and cool pools. After the hot springs, we ate at a pizzeria for our last meal in Costa Rica. :( We headed back to the hotel to relax, pack up and enjoy the last few hours in Costa Rica. We had a 2 am departure time (gross) and just about everyone slept during our almost 3 hour trip to the airport. When we got to the airport, I went to go pay the airport tax as the guides helped unload everyone and gave them their snack breakfast. After paying the tax and having our breakfast at 4:45 am we got our tickets and went through security as we watched the sunrise in the windows right in front of us. We had a nice big waiting area, complete with a Cinnabon near by, which many took advantage of to supplement their earlier breakfast or to help wake them up with the coffee. We had an uneventful flight and got in to Dallas around 2 pm. Unfortunately, when we got to Dallas, it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get through migration, get luggage, and go through customs. Thankfully we had about a 3 1/2 hour layover, so it helped eat up some of the time. Again, we had an uneventful flight and got back to MN on time, where we met up with our families :) And here ends the saga of Costa Rica 2013 :) I changed the settings on the pictures, so hopefully everyone will be able to see them. There are 2 different albums, so here are the links for those: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.627430537275545&type=1 https://www.facebook.com/groups/520493947969205/photos/