Barra Honda National Park by Sam

I was very excited when we arrived at Barra Honda National Park (us being Jet, Rich, Dad, and I). This is a National Park in Costa Rica and features the country's biggest cave system.

When we first arrived, we had to go up a long, bumpy dirt road to get our spelunking equipment. Then, we had to drive up another road to get to the start of the trail. There, our adventure began.

About 10 minutes into the hike, the guide showed us some large leaves, which felt like sandpaper under our fingers. We also saw what appeared to be an owl, sleeping on the top of a tree, and tent-making bats, which bite halfway through the leaf, so it folds down to make a shelter.

We finally got to the cave entrance, which was a large hole with a wooden fence surrounding it. When it was my turn, I had to go down a 20 meter long ladder (that was embedded in the rock in several different places) to get to the bottom. When we looked around the cave we saw huge stalactites and stalagmites (the difference being that one hangs from the top, and one juts out from the bottom).

We could not go in to the bat cave, because a Fer-de-Lance (the most poisonous snake in  Costa Rica), was living there, and eating them. Instead, we squeezed through a narrow crack, and went down a ladder into another cavern. Here, we could see the ceiling of the cave sparkling. I also lost my headlamp here, when it slipped of my helmet into a deep crack in the wall. The guide tried to get it, but it was in too deep. After the guide climbed back up, we all switched off our headlamps. It was really dark, and when I put my hand 2 centimeters in front of my face, I could not see it. Then we turned our head lamps back on, and headed back up to daylight.

When we got back up, we headed to a lookout over the valley. The scenery was awesome, and we could see as far as the Gulf of Nicoya.There, we also ate bagels. On the way back we saw lots of butterflies, and a small green iguana. Another awesome adventure!