Craziest/Most eventful weekend of my life

I have no idea where to even start. This weekend was ridiculous. I mean RIDICULOUS! From School we packed 6 people into a car that could only fit 5 and drove down to Central San José to pick up a car that we rented. We ended up with a Hyundai Tuscon 4X4 for Tammy, Kayla and I. After battling our way through Tican Traffic, we made it to the country roads of Costa Rica. If you look on my facebook you will be able to see said-pictures (lol). The view is AMAZING here in Costa Rica. It is mountainous, green, and full of cows. It was about a 6 hour drive up to Santa Elena in the upper part of the Central Valley on the boarder with Guanacaste (a very historic and cultural region of Costa Rica). We drove through sketchy small towns of scrap tin houses, barbed wire (for cows instead of people), and of course cows. It gets dark by about 6pm here so we drove up the mountains at night. It was so beautiful though. Costa Rica is so mountainous that the roads cork-screw up and around the mountains CONSTANTLY. Because of that we actually drove above the clouds during the later portion of the ride. It was breathtaking. We got out a few times to look DOWN on the clouds and it was just awe-inspiring. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. We drove through the clouds a lot too, which was just like fog, only sometimes you could see the bottom of the clouds or where you're going to drive into one. But anyway we made it to Sta Elena and to our Hostel...that's right. HoStel. It was run by young people with dred-locks, or even the guy with the red pony-tails, make-up and women's clothes with a nordic accent. This was European central of the town. We met girls from Germany, a guy from Poland, French, Americans, and others who spoke English but with accents. We got some Salchicharon and tortillas to make Gallos with a bag of tortilla chips and Margarita mix for Tammy. We cooked the Salchicharon but burnt half of it on the pan while doing it causing plumes of smoke to fill the kitchen...yes...we were THOSE people. Washing it just added to the smoke, by the way. But anyway, we enjoyed our wonderful gallos outside with the cutest dog and spent our wonderful night in a Hostel with European youth. Best part: I paid $10 for the night. We made our way up to Monteverde after to go to the cloud forest. It was very beautiful and the whole tour was in Spanish since it was just Tammy, Kayla and me. I can comprehend fluently now which REALLY makes me happy. It feels kind of weird because I am learning all of this new information but in Spanish. After the cloud forest we took a ride down to the bat exhibit which was kind of cool, but overpriced. Not going to go into it. And finally we headed off to La Fortuna to Arenal again. Now the problem this time was that the hotel was not what we were thinking at all. We thought this was a repeat of last week's accommodations at the volcano...instead we were in the city with no view. So because of this I called up the old cabins and reserved us a spot while canceling our reservations at the new place in the city. We paid $2 for the most beautiful view in all of Costa Rica (and I got to practice my Spanish on the phone and breaking some poor hotel lady's heart lol). The view at these cabins is spectacular. Each one is facing the volcano and is almost at the base. What makes it even better is that this place is also a fica (or ranch) so there are cows, horses, chickens, and dogs running all over the place. You can hear the Howler monkeys in the background mixing with the exotic bird songs and the dinosaur-esque grunting of the cows. Absolutely beautiful. And the room was HUGE! For $20 a person with breakfast. Plus the lady that owns it is overly nice. This place is legit ridiculous and you need to see pictures on my facebook. That night we watched the volcano let out smoke while drinking Margarita mix with sprite (cause I needed it to be watered down...too much tequila) and sangria while listening to the monkeys, cows and night-bugs. The morning was also amazing because I explored the field with the animals. I sat there for 2 hours watching the cows and horses and didn't realize until last minute that they let a bull in...and I was wearing my new red sweatshirt. It stared me straight in the face and I just bent down behind a tree and had to sneak out of the pen. The cows seemed pretty timid too. They stared at me and almost began to charge, but then I would step back, fearing my life hahaha. From Arenal Volcano we headed out on a TREACHEROUS trip to the Vernado Caves. The roads are unpaved and wrap around mountains. We were tossed around and heard scary clunky noises that made us wonder if we were going to blow up a tire or pop a hole in something. Worst roads I have ever been on in my life and lasted for Kilometers. We got lost, constantly, because each map has different roads and different towns. but we finally got to the caves and I finally had one of the freakiest experiences of my life. I put on my galoshes and entered to pure blackness of the cave. Water came flowing out from the underground river filled with no-eyed fish and sometimes scorpions. We entered a large cabin in total darkness...nothing. Then looking up I saw tons of bats moving and flying around mixed with stalagmites...then the worst part came when he looked at the wall and picked up a spider...the grossest spider I have seen in my life. We continued along the slippery rocks guided only by the light of our flashlights to a tiny opening that we had to squeeze through that was no bigger than 2 of my heads...it was really, really freaky and claustrophobic. Once through, all 3 of us fit in like sardines in this enclosed space and had to scale up the cave into a more open space. Still not open enough to stand in, we made our way to the upper level surround by water and less desirable creatures. I could not shine my flash-light on the walls and the best advise I would give would be not to look at the walls or touch them, because every time all I would see were long legged spiders and crickets larger than your hand...I only know this because he would pick them up off his legs and clothes and show us. I don't want to think about what was on me, so I will continue. So we made our way in darkness; Kayla, Tammy, me and the guide through the cave looking at stalagmites, bats, poo, and spiders and swam through spaces twice the size of me and scaled up and down slippery rocks spotted with bat droppings, spiders, and monster crickets...they had legs like spiders too. I actually thought they were spiders during the trip. Soaked, dirty, blind, and freaked out I was able to make the best out of this experience and enjoy some of what the cave had to offer...I appreciate it more now than when I was actually in it haha. Scary, but worth it...would I do it again? No. but worth it. Then from there we got lost going back to San José. We pulled over and I asked for directions. The lady said she was going the same way and said she could show us so we said yes. We pulled over and the car she was next to drove away and she opened the door to our car...we had a hitch-hiker...we all just stared in shock as the other car drove away and she said that she needed a ride there anyway. Thinking it was around the corner we left...with a hitch-hiker, freaked out...but she was an older woman and constantly smiled so we just drove. We dropped her off in Toque and tried to find our way back to San José...again the maps are all different and many roads are not marked so we were constantly lost on never-ending-un-paved-roads. We finally made it back to the car rental place by the airport in Alajuela and took a bus to San José. From San José we took a bus to San Pedro. We were going to get off at the mall and take a taxi back to Kayla's house and then to Tammy's and my houses in Moravia but the bus never stopped at the mall...instead it ended up in Europa: a random district in San José in the suburbs. Thank God when we were forced to get off (thinking it would loop back around) there was a taxi letting out people because this was not a place for taxis. We then were able to head back home for 5000 colones. A ridiculous week of stress, adventure, stories, and new experiences...there's probably more, but it's all too much to remember.