Costa Rican Rainbows

I am safe in Costa Rica! My friend from a college meeting, Jorge, came to pick me up and we headed back to his house. I was getting nervous in the air plane, thinking what if he didn't come! What was I going to do? But all went according to plan. We went to his grandfathers house first to pick up the car that I would be driving around for the rest of the trip. Since he doesn't have his licence yet, I am the primary driver. The car of course has to be a very nice car which is also stick shift. I am so scared something will happen to it while I'm driving. Especially getting used to Costa Rican driving (which is much better than Honduran, thank god, but still a challenge). I made it up the enormous hill where he lives, and when I stepped out I looked at the view and it was absolutely incredible. From his house you can see all of San Jose, and at that moment a perfect rainbow was arched over the city. The houses stretched in both directions, and the clouds clumped in random places as the sun streamed down. It was so pretty. At night all of the lights glitter far below you. Jorge's family is very nice and are taking very good care of me. I appreciate their hospitality so much. We just relaxed for the rest of the day because I was exhausted from my 14 hour plane ride (which went from LA to New York, down to Orlando and then finally Costa Rica).

This morning I slept in, and then Jorge and I headed over to the Volcano Irazu. I got go take another try at driving, this time for about 40 minutes, and I think I'm getting the hang of it. The one way streets are slightly confusing but GPS is an amazing navigation system. I drove up the mountain and half way up we entered a cloud. It seemed like it was misting but really it was just the water from the cloud hitting the windshield. When we got to the top, we were still in the cloud and couldn't see anything. I had resigned myself to not being able to see the Volcano, but we got out to walk along the edge so at least I could say I had been to the top, even though we couldn't see. The cloud was so dense, but I was the ash fields at my feet and enjoyed the freezing air that wrapped me up in it. We kept walking along the border fence just to see how far it went, when suddenly all of the clouds parted and I could see perfectly into the crater. I was on the left side of the crater and as I looked down, a rainbow formed right over the pool inside the Volcano's crater. The water was a brilliant turquoise blue, about 800 meters down. To the left was a flat area with ash. It was beautiful. I could look strait out and see the tops of the clouds and even watch the next cloud flying towards me, reminding me of the dark cloud from James and the Giant Peach. It would engulf us for five minutes, and then pass and things would again be clear. We hiked to the highest point where supposedly on clear days you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and though we could see neither it was still a pretty view of the clouds all around. We stopped for lunch on the way down and as we were driving away, the most amazing, perfect double rainbow I have ever seen appeared right behind us. Since I was driving, I could only see it from my mirrors but it was amazing. I attempted to pull over but decided against it. It stretched all the way across in two solid beautiful rows. Someone is smiling at me. :)