Today we visited the national park of Rincón de la Vieja, "The Corner of the Old Woman". (And no we don't have any idea why it is named this.)  This is a large park on volcanic grounds with a strange mix of forests and savannas.  In retrospect, this park should be explored over several days, but we tried to see it all in one.  Our legs are still complaining about this exertion.

The first trail took us around various manifestations of volcanic activity: geysers, bubbling mud pools, sulfur steam baths, and other-worldly lagoons.  It is hard to capture the full experience of the smells and sounds of this place in a still image, but here's the best we could do:



Since this trail wasn't too strenuous, we optimistically set out on the second, longer trail.  And the beginning seemed promising with sights of huge trees, coatis (see Tikal), pig-size rodents, and lots of monkeys.  When we paused on the trail one group of monkeys became curious and got very close to us.



However, our enthusiasm for the monkeys began to wane as the trail went on and on.  A promised waterfall at the end kept us going, but our muscles threatened to revolt.  Nevertheless we marched on so that we could bring you this picture:

                                  

. . .it was a nice swim as well.  Too bad we still had to trek the two hours back—totaling about seven hours of hiking in rough terrain.  We still don't know our destination for tomorrow, but you'll be first to know.