Today was a long and extraneous day; we went to Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges, a nearby lake, and Arenal Vida Campesina.

At Místico we had a scavanger hunt where we had to find a variaty of plants, animals, and other features of the park. I teamed up with Taliya to win a stuffed sloth and we totaled 420 points (or 21 items found). It was fun to run around the park trying to find specific plants and evesdroping on tour groups to get pictures of animals. However, the rain was on and off all throughout day, making many of the stairs and suspended bridges very slippery. The rain also caused many animals to retreat into hiding, so it was harder to spot any. Although, the rain did make the waterfalls and creeks overflow and prettier to look at.

At the lake, most of the group went kayaking or paddle-boarding while I got to read ontop of a hill overlooking the lake. Then it started raining again and my book got soaked. The rain will just come out of nowhere in giant raindrops; the only way to stay dry is to constantly be wearing a rain jacket in 80 degree heat, but obviously my book does not have that option.

Finally, we went to Arenal Vida Campesina which is an intercrop farm with many different plants in many small plots. However, they do not sell their crops outside of the food they make in their restaurant. I find this strange as we did not have as large of a selection as there were plants in the garden, but maybe that was because we were a large group. Durring the tour, the rain would randomly hit us, though thankfully most of the stops were under a roof. We were able to learn about sugar cane juice and cacao beans without getting too wet.

Costa Rica is currently entering the rainy season, so tourism, and the economy with it, is slowing down. Because many farms rely on tourism as their secondary source of income, business slows down in the spring and summer months. Farms could prepare for the slower season by seasonaly diverting resources from their tours and twoards their actual havests. For example, they could cut down on the number of tours they give a week and the hours they give to tour guides and invest that money in figuring out more effective or sustainable ways to grow their crops. Or, just save the money for the next season.