Early in the morning, we got picked up from our hotel and taken to one of the cloud forests in Monteverde. Monteverde has two "cloud forests," one on either side of the Continental Divide. The clever name for these eco-wonderlands is derived from the fact that they are literally in the clouds. As such, you are generally always walking through a fine mist while you are walking through these areas.
Today was to be our day of breezing through the upper canopy on zip lines like crazy tourists. This notion was completely petrifying to my girlfriend, but I was too tired to be scared. For anyone not familiar with zip lining, there is a series of cables and platforms (about 18 where we were) through an area (in this case a rainforest canopy) and you sort of slide along these cables, from platform to platform at really high speeds. Some systems provide you with a braking lever. Ours, however, left us with only our hands to stop us, as they gave us thick gloves and explained how we had to grip the cable when we needed to stop or slow down. This was by far the hardest part because you never knew if you were going too fast or not fast enough, or when to start braking. As an added bonus, about half-way through, there was a very tall platform where they handed you a rope and they pushed you off, and while it looked and felt like you were plummeting to the ground, the rope you were holding would catch you just before the ground and swing you out into this large clearing. They call it a Tarzan Swing. I called it excitement with gravity.
Zip lining was a nice experience but certainly nothing too exciting for either of us, unless you count the adrenaline rush. However, we were glad we did it so that we could say that we did it. After that little 1 or 2 hour adventure was over, we got to go on a self-guided cloud forest hike, which included (you guessed it) more hanging bridges. By now, though, we had become connoisseurs of these contraptions, comparing and contrasting them. "These seem more stable." "The last ones looked nicer." Etc. We are not sure if we did not see much wildlife on the self-guided hike because all of the nature blended into itself, which seems completely possible, or if it was because only a scant hundred or so feet away crazy tourists were flying and screaming through the air, zip lining their little hearts out. It was probably more likely the latter, or at least a healthy mix of the two.
Next we got a bite to eat, followed immediately by another butterfly garden. However, this one was much larger and had a guide, which was really helpful. The other helpful item was that it stopped raining when we entered the garden and the butterflies became far more active. We learned all of the things we had learned (and forgotten) about butterflies in grade school, as well as a few things we had never known before. For example, some of the design patterns on the backs of butterflies make them look like owls or snakes, or the fact that butterfly wings are covered with scales and they reflect the light and that's what gives them their pretty colors.
After we were finished here, we went up the road a little ways to the Santa Elena Reserve, which is a huge park-like area run by a school, and did some hiking through there for a couple of hours, returning afterwards to where we had gone zip lining to catch the last shuttle out, which we had drop us off in the downtown area so that we could grab dinner, use an ATM, and get some groceries.
According to our handy guidebook, and the map our hotel gave us, Monteverde only has one bank and ATM. Unfortunately for us, the bank closed at 3PM and the ATM had decided it no longer wanted to work. Fortunately, however, we ran into two American teachers on a mission for cash, who had been asking around town and thought they had located a secret ATM. We followed them along in their mission, which ended up proving successful - as we found a little ATM tucked away in a super tiny nondescript room of a strip mall. Cash in had, we went to try and find dinner.
It seems many of the restaurants in the area had changed since the publication of our guidebook, and so, we just found somewhere that looked nice and clean and had dinner. It was nice that the place we picked was across the street from the grocery store and also right next door to the local ice cream parlor, which we also decided to sample.
Tired, well fed, with groceries and cash in-hand, we took a taxi back down the long and bumpy road to our hotel and turned in for the evening.
Today was to be our day of breezing through the upper canopy on zip lines like crazy tourists. This notion was completely petrifying to my girlfriend, but I was too tired to be scared. For anyone not familiar with zip lining, there is a series of cables and platforms (about 18 where we were) through an area (in this case a rainforest canopy) and you sort of slide along these cables, from platform to platform at really high speeds. Some systems provide you with a braking lever. Ours, however, left us with only our hands to stop us, as they gave us thick gloves and explained how we had to grip the cable when we needed to stop or slow down. This was by far the hardest part because you never knew if you were going too fast or not fast enough, or when to start braking. As an added bonus, about half-way through, there was a very tall platform where they handed you a rope and they pushed you off, and while it looked and felt like you were plummeting to the ground, the rope you were holding would catch you just before the ground and swing you out into this large clearing. They call it a Tarzan Swing. I called it excitement with gravity.
Zip lining was a nice experience but certainly nothing too exciting for either of us, unless you count the adrenaline rush. However, we were glad we did it so that we could say that we did it. After that little 1 or 2 hour adventure was over, we got to go on a self-guided cloud forest hike, which included (you guessed it) more hanging bridges. By now, though, we had become connoisseurs of these contraptions, comparing and contrasting them. "These seem more stable." "The last ones looked nicer." Etc. We are not sure if we did not see much wildlife on the self-guided hike because all of the nature blended into itself, which seems completely possible, or if it was because only a scant hundred or so feet away crazy tourists were flying and screaming through the air, zip lining their little hearts out. It was probably more likely the latter, or at least a healthy mix of the two.
Next we got a bite to eat, followed immediately by another butterfly garden. However, this one was much larger and had a guide, which was really helpful. The other helpful item was that it stopped raining when we entered the garden and the butterflies became far more active. We learned all of the things we had learned (and forgotten) about butterflies in grade school, as well as a few things we had never known before. For example, some of the design patterns on the backs of butterflies make them look like owls or snakes, or the fact that butterfly wings are covered with scales and they reflect the light and that's what gives them their pretty colors.
After we were finished here, we went up the road a little ways to the Santa Elena Reserve, which is a huge park-like area run by a school, and did some hiking through there for a couple of hours, returning afterwards to where we had gone zip lining to catch the last shuttle out, which we had drop us off in the downtown area so that we could grab dinner, use an ATM, and get some groceries.
According to our handy guidebook, and the map our hotel gave us, Monteverde only has one bank and ATM. Unfortunately for us, the bank closed at 3PM and the ATM had decided it no longer wanted to work. Fortunately, however, we ran into two American teachers on a mission for cash, who had been asking around town and thought they had located a secret ATM. We followed them along in their mission, which ended up proving successful - as we found a little ATM tucked away in a super tiny nondescript room of a strip mall. Cash in had, we went to try and find dinner.
It seems many of the restaurants in the area had changed since the publication of our guidebook, and so, we just found somewhere that looked nice and clean and had dinner. It was nice that the place we picked was across the street from the grocery store and also right next door to the local ice cream parlor, which we also decided to sample.
Tired, well fed, with groceries and cash in-hand, we took a taxi back down the long and bumpy road to our hotel and turned in for the evening.
2 comments:
Good thing you came across those teachers! Glad it worked out okay.
Thank you for the comment on my blog today... I really appreciate the constructive criticism - which is why I posted that excerpt. I will be sure to clarify earlier on the final. Thank you!!
Your zip lining adventure sounds amazing :) I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to do it!
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