We woke up at 5:30 and got ready and had breakfast at the buffet.  It’s included in the room price so we might as well eat there every day! We were met in the lobby by our guide and driver. Our guide’s name was Carlos and the owner of the tour company was our driver.  The drive was only 15 minutes to Lake Arenal and then a 20 minute boat ride across the lake.  On the other side of the lake we were met by a second driver and set off on our 1 ½ hour drive to MonteVerde.  This was a ride I’ll never forget. It’s hard to imagine that roads like these exist.  Unpaved, rocks and dirt, fissures from water erosion and pot holes the likes of which are almost indescribable.  And not just one pot hole, but a whole flock of them, causing our minibus to go about 2mph through them.  The scenery along the way though was just breathtaking. And we went through many little towns and villages along the way.  It was like time traveling.  We were constantly going past little bars and restaurants that were all open the air on 3 sides with horses tethered outside next to small Korean SUV’s. People were always walking or biking or going about on horseback. 

We finally arrived at MonteVerde. Along the way the forest had changed from a rain forest to a wet forest and grazing lands in the mountains and now was a cloud forest.  We saw lots of grazing lands on our drive. It all used to be forest but was clear cut for cattle farming in the early 1900’s.  Clear cutting is now forbidden and Costa Rica only raises cows for domestic consumption, no importing or exporting of cows or beef.

At MonteVerde we met our guide for the first tour which has on the hanging bridges. This was a very neat walk/hike. Most of it was across bridges but some was on the ground.  We started with the hummingbird area, a lot of feeders filled with humming birds.  They, like the bats of the night before, made a neat sound as they zoomed by our heads.  The feeders were also popular with bees and at one point a humming bird fought a bee for position on a feeder. 

The walk on the bridges through the cloud forest was pretty cool.  The trees were enormously tall.  At several points we were 300-400 feet off the ground and you couldn’t tell.  There were still trees taller than us!  The forest is also very dense.  Plants here grow on any niche they can find, often on every branch a tree has.  Each branch is an eco system.  There is wildlife that stays in certain zones in the forest and never leaves. Some that are only in the canopy and some that are only in the mid range between canopy and forest floor.  There was a fern we saw that was easily 30’ across and probably 100’ below us.  One of the bridges was supposedly used in the first Indiana Jones movie.

After the hike we had lunch. I opted for the traditional Casado dish again and it was quite yummi, though different from the other times I had it.

With lunch done we had some time to kill before our Sky Trek canopy tour was to start.  We looked around the gift shop and sat outside in the sun.  It was a killer day. Usually the cloud forest is pretty cloudy but we lucked out it was sunny and bright with white puffy clouds.  Finally we met up with the rest of the people in our 1:30 zip line canopy tour.  There was a couple from LA who spoke Spanish, two guys from Oregon on an adventure trip and two women who spoke Spanish natively, not sure where they were from.  Our guide Carlos also came with us.

We put on our gear: a harness, helmet, gloves and the thing you hold on to on the zip line.  The hats really smelled bad.  And the gloves were wet. But you just had to ignore that and soon there would be a lot more on our minds anyway. 

We started out with a climb up a steel spiral staircase.  Then walked across a hanging bridge and into the forest.  The first few zip lines were just for us to get used to the process and what we had to do, which wasn’t much. Once hooked onto the line you just lay back with arms extended holding on the wheel attached to the line and curl you legs up. The tighter your legs, the less your air resistance and the faster you go.  If you got stuck you could turn around and pull yourself arm over arm to the next platform or wait for a guide to come get you.  One of the guides always went over first and his job was to break us as we came zipping into the receiving platform.  He had a rope that your wheel hit and he held the other end of the rope and slowed you down, fast.  If you were going too fast even for the rope breaking technique to deal with they would give you a hand sign and that meant you had to bleed some speed on your own but twisting your wheel on the zipline. The first few lines were quite fun and went by very quickly. I didn’t see Traci at all until the first few were over.  Then came a hike that seemed like it was never going to end. A forced death march up steps in the mountain to gain altitude. We met a couple coming down who said “you’re about halfway there”.  I started to despair just a bit as by this time I was quite winded and my legs were burning.  We finally made it and happily the “fit” people in the group were also sucking wind a bit, so I didn’t feel quite as bad.  There were a series of zip lines after this but every time we did one I knew we’d have to climb again at some point since we hadn’t done the highest one yet.  Finally we go to where the next zip line was the highest and to get there we had an 8 minute hike up hill and steps! 8 minutes? Non stop? Fast paced? The Stairmaster of death!

At least this time I sort of knew what to expect for my death climb, so I paced myself and concentrated on the scenery and not the time.  Just when we thought we were done, we came to a another steel spiral staircase on top of the mountain top.  22 meters tall they said. That’s over 66 feet.  Up we went. And up. And up. And up.  The tower actually swayed in the wind once we cleared the trees around us. It was a mesh staircase with mesh flooring so you could always see down as well. 

The view from the top was incredible.  I think they said we were over 450 feet up. This was the highest zipline but not the fastest or the longest.  We stood around up there for awhile while they sent their stopper person over to the other side.  At one point we saw a hawk soaring BELOW us.  We watched clouds coming in below and around us as well and knew the weather was going to change.  We had raincoats tied around us and I figured we’d probably need them soon.  This was a fun zip line.

The next few went very fast as the clouds came in and it got quite wet and rainy.  The last two zip lines were neat since you could only see a few feet in front of you.  It looked like a line that just disappeared into the clouds.  The last two also required two people at a time to make sure you got enough speed to get across them.  Traci and I were split up and each went with a guide.  By the end of this I was quite wet and actually a bit cold!

After this we were waiting for some pictures to print out and ran into the same people we met on the Cano Negro tour, the guy from Australia and the girl from the UK.  We talked to them for a bit and then it was time to start the journey back to Tabacon.

On the road back we stopped by the roadside to see some Toucans and other wildlife.  One very neat plant was something they called the “sleeping plant”. When you stroked it’s leaves it folded them in. It’s neat to see and do since we don’t usually think of plants as an interactive thing.

The rains came at us again as we crossed Lake Arenal but not to bad or too long. But it was about 5:30 and the sun was setting quickly.  We got back to the resort at 6pm as they had promised which was amazing.  In all our reading about Costa Rica and what to expect we kept coming across a concept called “Tico Time”.  Everyone said the locals weren’t very punctual and that we should expect delays and no prompt service.  We experienced exactly the opposite. Everything was incredibly on time especially given the varied travel conditions and willingness of the guides to stop to look around for wildlife.

Once back at the hotel we ate dinner and crashed early. The next day is a bird watching walk at 5:30am, so it’s up at 5am

[DAILY GALLERY]