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The slightly crazy Nicaraguan border and the 2+ hour wait at a Costa Rican road junction was definitely worth it to get to Monteverde. The last bus ride of 38km took us on an 1.5 hour trip steadily uphill along windy roads with beautiful views across the country. We arrived into rain and cold and found our cosy hostel which was more like a chalet.
We went out for some dinner and quickly discovered that Costa Rica really is as expensive as everyone has been telling us so decided we would make good use of the kitchen from then on at the hostel. However we had a very exciting moment on the walk back when we saw a sloth with her baby making their way along the power lines and into the trees. We were able to watch them for about 10 minutes and I could hardly contain my excitement at my first wild sloth sighting!
On Saturday we got up early to get the bus to the Monteverde forest where we managed to walk pretty much all the trails that were open in 3.5 hours. The cloud forest is spectacular with all the dense vegetation and so beautiful. We hardly saw any wildlife because it was daytime, quite a few people were around and it was quite wet but it didn't matter as the forest on its own was a big enough attraction. We did manage to glimpse the back end of a small furry animal disappearing into the forest. Unfortunately we completed the trails two hours before the bus back so had a bit of a cold wait and it was raining lots. This is the coldest we've been since Guatemala!
When we returned from the forest we had just enough time to visit the supermarket and have a small rest before going out on a night tour. This was an excellent two hours where we saw: snakes; a tarantula; two small frogs; a toucan; another small bird being blown around on a branch; a sloth (my favourite!) and two kinkajous. These are related to raccoons and we only got brief glimpses of them after running through the forest but we were lucky to see them. We returned to our hostel shattered after our day of exertion but still managed to cook sausages and mash and drink some good Nicaraguan rum that we had bought for $2 before we left the country.
We decided to take it a bit easier on Sunday and did some extreme zip lining. We got driven to the site then kitted up by the enthusiastic and cheerful Tico (Costa Rican) guides then began to descend ever-increasing sized zip lines. The last two were superman zip lines where you go down facing forward. One of them was 1590m long which is apparently the longest in Central America. I loved the superman ones because the view was amazing and I didn't have to worry about staying facing forward or braking. Simon didn't enjoy the long one so much because he felt unsteady holding his camera to take a video at the same time. The morning culminated in a Tarzan swing where you briefly freefall before swinging on the end of a rope. I did not do this- way too scary! After watching other people doing it and screaming, I decided it reminded me too much of the very scary bungee jump I did nine years ago. I'm pleased to say Simon successfully went through with it without needing a change of underwear afterwards. An excellent adrenaline filled morning though and a very professional company. The highlight of the afternoon was eating ice cream made by the local cheese factory. Yum!
Katy
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