Monteverde, Costa Rica
The next day, we headed to Monteverde. The drive was great. Monteverde is up in the mountains as its known for its cloud forests and hanging bridges. We were at the base of the mountain in probably an hour and a half? But the drive up took us another 45 minutes and was on gravel roads. We got there in the afternoon. We stopped on the way from San Jose for lunch in Punta Arenas. There was not much to see there but it was along the water and we had our own car, so we thought it would be a cool stop.
Lunch on the water.
In Monteverde, we did a couple tours through the “Selina” we were staying at. That night, we did a walking tour through the forest. The tour guide joked about seeing Pumas and snakes… but he was serious. We didn't end up seeing pumas or snakes, thankfully, but we did see Scorpions, stick bugs, and tarantulas. However, the highlight was seeing a sloth!! Another guide spotted one hanging from some vines, so we quickly detoured and jogged over. They only weigh like 10 lbs but look like these large creatures – it was wild. Unfortunately, no pictures.
Drove out to a bakery one morning to get some croissants. Traffic actually wasn't bad. There was just some construction.
The next day, we checked out the hanging bridges. It was a hike in semi-rainy weather. We saw a ton of hummingbirds and when they were all clustered together, it was an incredible sight. We saw a few other birds, including a bell bird (known for making a bell-like noise), as our guide was a bird enthusiast! He helped us get some awesome pictures... which we then lost. I am so distraught about this...
We then had booked another tour where we went rappelling down waterfalls but we were late. But our guide was super cool and within a few minutes, he made 2-3 phone calls, and arranged for transportation from the site where we finished our tour to the next place! This would end up being the highlight of the trip! And thankfully, we have photos that the tour guides took. The $20 was so worth it given we lost all our other photos...
First waterfall!
The big test. Looking back to see how much further... sorry, you have to tilt your head.
Passing the test with a few bumps and bruises.
The last one... they decided to cut the rope short.
The next day, we did a hike to the cloud forest and saw a few waterfalls along the way! I wish I had pictures!!! Anyway, the tour guides were honestly the coolest people throughout this trip. They were all so comfortable hiking and rappelling and the guy who took us on this tour explained that he even built one of the bridges we crossed! We then took horses to get back to where we started the tour since it had been a few kilometres downhill that we had hiked. My horses name was Tequila and he was the slowest. The joke was that he had too much tequila the night before. I had to keep yelling “Vamos Tequila” and kicking him. But it was fun! I do have this video: