After taking a red eye flight to Costa Rica and driving through beautiful mountains we arrived at our first destination, La Fortuna. La Fortuna is a little town that sits at the base of Mount Arenal where you can see lava flowing pretty regularly. We previously booked a room at El Buho Cabinas which turned out to be just fine for what we needed and couldn't really be better for $20 per night.

It must be said, the best part of our accommodation were the neighbors. There were a ton of iguanas in the tree right outside our room, and they were not the least bit camera shy.

Unfortunately, due to the rain and the nature of the activities that we were taking part in, much of the time I was unable to take many photographs. As it turns out, things like zip lining aren't so conducive to photography. However, I was able to take the camera along on our hikes. This was a great sign we walked past on our first day in Arenal Volcano Park.

The thing about places like Costa Rica is that you spend most of your time with your face turned up looking for interesting creatures. Much of the time those creatures are pretty elusive, but it is amazing the beauty that you can find when you are so observant on the trail.

The greenness of Costa Rica is breath taking. It is truly a photographers playground.

We were lucky to find a couple of spider monkeys playing in the tree tops. They were so much fun to watch. The acrobatics that they can pull off with those tails of theirs is hilarious.

From the Arenal Observatory Lodge you can actually get a pretty decent view of the lava. Unfortunately for us the cloud cover was such that you could just see a few red lumps at the bottom of the clouds. It was fine though, I was happy enough with the sunset.