Green Mountain

A couple of weekends ago, I finally made my way up to Monteverde, one of the largest areas of tourism in Costa Rica. If you think of Costa Rican ecotourism, you are thinking of this place. It is filled to the brim with flora and fauna galore.

Any trip to Monteverde using the bus system is a real adventure because you have two options for when you want to go. The buses leave at 2:30 in the afternoon or our choice of 6:30 A.M. which comes very early whenever it is time for you to head out. While it does end up being so early in the morning, it means that you have the ability to go somewhere for the afternoon once you get there. When we got there, we checked into our bed and breakfast for the weekend, grabbed some food, and headed to our canopy tour. This tour proved to be one of the more interesting and exciting of the three that I have been on since being in Costa Rica. The lines went through the actual tree tops of the forest rather than going above. It was also all around mystical due to the clouds hanging over the forest as we zipped through. This tour also had a really cool Tarzan swing which is really just a giant that you jump off of a high platform on (a la Tarzan complete with yelling).

The next day we work up, had a lazy breakfast and then headed towards the Monteverde Biological Reserve. There we had somebody highlight some trails on a map and we headed into the forest. We hiked around for 3 hours observing the beautiful forest, suspended bridges, and waterfalls. It was very nice to be able to escape into a forest that is so different from being in the busy city during the week.

That evening we had a night hike booked. This night hikes are important to go on because much of the animal life in the forest only is out at night. Luckily night in Costa Rica comes at about 5:30 P.M. so it isn't too hard on those of us trying to pack everything into a weekend. On this hike we saw some of the coolest things I have ever seen. Right when we started, there was a mother sloth and there baby just hanging out it a tree. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. After walking for a bit longer, there was an animal called a coatimundi that is a relative of raccoon  it was super cool to say the least. We also ran across a tarantula, a raccoon, raccoon babies, snakes, and various insects. It was way cool. Even thought it was a little bit cold, you couldn't be upset being in such a cool place.

Finally, on our last day we had a bus leaving at 2:30 so we had the morning to burn. Kyle and I headed to a really cool coffee shop and decided to hang out for a while to just enjoy good coffee. It was phenomenal coffee straight from local growers. They played your regular playlists from the states as we read the newspaper and conversed over foreign politics and other super interesting topics. It was really refreshing to have something that reminded us a little bit of college life in the US. Afterwards we did some souvenir shopping and headed to a restaurant call the Tree House. This place was so cool because it had a tree in the middle that covered half of the seating on this second floor restaurant. The food was exceptional and a great way to end a fantastic weekend. It was truly remarkable. Pura Vida.

Photos courtesy of Kyle and myself.