Hi ho, hi ho it's off to Monte Verde we go!! This morning we left La Fortuna and made our way to the beautiful cloud forest of monte verde.
Firstly, we caught a minibus to Lake Arenal, where we were met by a ferry. Now I don't know if it is a good sign when about 50 vultures are sitting on top of the hydro electricity tower, just above where we are about to board our small little boat. Not a reassuring sign really. However, vultures or not we all happily packed our bags on that little boat and jumped aboard!! The boat took off, and soon after the driver asked some people to move to our side to even out the weight in the boat!! Yep, capsize the boat and we all become vulture food!! Smart vultures!!! I knew they were there for a reason.
About an hour later we arrive on the other side of the lake and we met our new minivan. I did have to perform some rather special toe nail saving first aid on my beautiful Swiss friend Susan.... and then we were off!!
The road to monte verde is what I like to describe as a very very bumpy roller coaster ride. The roads were unmade, I would say about 99% of the time. They twisted from left to right and right to left and were as steep as all hell!! It was a fun ride. We drove past some of the most stunning scenery we have seen to date. Beautiful rolling green hills. Windmills generating electricity. Old farm buildings and healthy looking cows and horses.
We finally rolled into monte verde and checked in to our hotel. A balcony overlooking the town and forest, it is a stellar view! It's funny, I say rolled into town, however we actually bumped our way in to town. Any town that requires 4WD (Prado's and Patrols) as taxis is a true indication on how steep and bumpy the roads really are!!!
The first noticeable difference between La Fortuna and Monte Verde is the change in climate. It is so much cooler here. We may actually need the blankets on our beds tonight.
After an orientation walk, we all booked in for our Monte Verde activities. This afternoon I, and 9 of my tour group members decided to do the bridges. We were driven about 20min to a picturesque forest. Here we gathered our maps and set off walking along a trail. During this walk we had to negotiate 8 canopy suspension bridges. Some of them were actually pretty long. The bridges bounced around every time someone walked on them, which made taking photos a little harder than usual. We saw some stunning rainforest, including amazingly beautiful plants and flowers, a few birds and some monkeys which was great. The only annoying part was the Italian guys that talked, sung and whistled their way around the paths. They also decided jumping on the bridges was fun, not so fun when you are trying to take photos and the camera won't focus....they are so lucky I didn't throw them off it!! It just meant we were less likely to see animals and birds!! So we let them past...and 5 min later we saw the howler monkeys....so that made me a happy lady again!!
Once we finished the bridges, we were driven back to the hotel, where we quickly got ready for our night walk. Essentially getting ready means reapplying not makeup, but insect repellent!! We set off at around 5.30pm. Again we were driven to a forest, that by this stage was covered in clouds and a light mist. Torches in hand we set off. Right off the bat we see bats!! Cheeky things were pinching the hummingbirds food.
Then we continued on. Throughout the night we saw....frogs, tarantula, snakes sleeping birds, insects, some animal that is part if the lemur family and lizards. We then finished up in town grabbing a late dinner and back to the hotel to get some rest before we start another busy day tomorrow!!