By Aleena Jilani * Spanish is the main language spoken by Costa Ricans * Some Costa Ricans in the big city of San Jose speak English, but not in the villages that we visited * Costa Rican money is very different from the money in the United States * For example: the plate of fries was about 3000 dollars and the plate of spaghetti was about 8000 dollars * That isnt actually much in Costa Rican money! * In Costa Rica 500 dollars is 1.00 in American money * So the plate of fries was 6.00 and the spaghetti was 16.00 * The La Fortuna waterfall was really pretty it took us about 400 steps (up and down!) to get to the waterfall so that we could swim * We saw people who tried to get to the bottom of the waterfall but the current was too strong * It was an amazing experience subhanAllah! * There are 112 volcanos in Costa Rica, but only 5 of them are active, including Arenal, the one we visited * We got to collect rocks that had lava marks on them * There were also many nice plants including one that was designed by leaf cutter ants * The flowers in Costa Rica are really pretty, there must have been over a hundred different types of flowers! * Our favorite plant was a flower that we called the monkey plant * Everywhere we turned, there was a tropical creature around us * We saw lots of iguanas, butterflies, and brightly colored birds, including blue birds * We got to visit a farm of a 102 year old man who still lives without electricity! * We got to go zip lining through the rain forest, including getting to swing like tarzan! * We went horseback riding to get a great view of the Arenal volcano * We took a rafting boat trip up the San Ramon river, close to the Nicaraguan border, where we saw lots of animals including monkeys, a snake, sloths, a tucan, a hummingbird and crocodiles, just to name a few! * We took a tour through a cocoa farm and learned about the lifecycle of a cocoa plant to understand how a cocoa bean turns into delicious chocolate * We also got to see vanilla bean plants, chili pepper plants, and more monkey plants! * We got to shake, smash, grind, mix and taste the wonderful cocoa bean we made into chocolate * Costa Rica is filled with black sand beaches because of the underwater lava from the volcanos * We went to the coast of the Pacific ocean (for the second time) * We played on the beach by jumping the waves and doing kartwheels across the sand * It was 90 degrees here while it was -20 degrees at home in Michigan * Costa Rica reminded us of Allah (SWT) beautiful creation that we should always respect * Even though we were on vacation, we still remembered to thank Allah (SWT) for the opportunity to see and experience new places