We awoke at 6 to start our most eventful day yet. We started out with breakfast at the lodge (another fantastic meal) and left for the Skytrack. I must admit, I was a little afraid of how fast the sip lines would go, and I was also hoping that I wouldn't discover a hidden fear of heights. Paolo, our guide, was very sweet and funny and he made me feel better about it. On the first zip line, I was afraid, but by the second I was absolutely loving it. After that, I loved everything about it - I'm including the rain and the wind, and even the cold. I was surprisingly happy for being soaked and chilled to the bone. And I discovered that I have no fear of heights at all. I wasn't even afraid on the Indiana Jones bridg. I was amazed at how well you could see everything, even when you were going so fast. And the second to last zip line! Wow. I've never done anything like that. Zipping through a cloud with a wire and a harness being the only two things keeping you from falling 500 ft. down is an experience I will never forget. And I think the rain and the cold only make it more memorable. After all that excitement, we toned it down a little with some horseback riding back to the lodge. I had never ridden a horse before, so everything was completely new to me. But the horses were very tame and sweet and I really loved the whole experience. The horse would try to cut the others off, so Marion and I would try to see who could cut the other off first (for the record, I won). When we got back to the lodge, we changed and headed out to the Monteverde Institute where Stu talked to us about water quality. He showed us a turbidity tube, which will take measurements better than a sequi disk.
Moving on to more exciting topics, then we went to get ice cream! I had mint chocolate chip and it wa really goos. Then we went shopping and things got interesting. Some of us who didn't know Spanish bought Spanish phrasebooks - complete with some interesting sections on sex and drug use. I hope we didn't scar Emily and Ashley. We went back to the lodge to eat dinner and prepare for a night out at the disco. It was fun to get all dressed up. We were all so excited to go to a real disco and not the fake imitations in the U.S. We played Truth or Dare on the way, and Nisha had to hop like a bunny into the disco. Once we got to the disco, the music was really great. It had a good beat. We went to the front and this guy who was dancing with Erinn started dancing with me. He was a good dancer, but a little pushy. Nothing really inappropriate, just typical machisimo. The only bad thing was that I wanted to dance with other guys, but I didn't want to be mean to him. Andrew rescued me and I danced with guys from our group after that. Marion and I had a lot of fun having no rhythm at all and still dancing. Then Chris and danced until we left at 11:30. I didn't get to bed until pretty late that night, and I knew I had to wake up early the next morning. I was tired, but content that I had done enough to fill several days.

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