i went to costa rica with jeff, aaron, and lila and even met up with my sister and her fiance (at the time: now husband). we rented a 4X4 which aaron and lila eventually drove into the river and started in san jose, made our way up to monteverde and arenal and the tabacon hot springs. arenal did not erupt while we were there eventhough it was new years eve and we were waiting patiently in the hot tub of our hotel that had a perfect view of the volcano. after the jungle, we headed to the beach for lots of ceviche, lots of cerveza, and lots of surfing. jeff and i traveled south across on the putanrenas ferry (which has karaoke that we did and managed to clear out the costa ricans with our rendition of "happy together") and spent a few days in the jungle with the "cocodrillos" (see photo) and then went on to manuel antonio (the most picturesque place we went to in all of costa rica). we surfed, sat at the beach and enjoyed the yuminess of makanda's breakfast (and the best luxury beach cabins around). we met back up with aaron and lila in the amaaaazing beach house in manzanillo, above an abandonned beach that was all our all day everyday as far as we could see.