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| View from the boat |
It was almost the entire day of travelling to transit from Arenal to Monteverde. The journey started with a short drive to the lake, a transfer to a scenic ferry, followed by a few hours of a bumpy van ride to the destination.
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| The scenery on the road from Arenal to Monteverde |
The total distance covered was not that far (about 50km), and the several hours it took to get there is an attestant to why I wouldn't want to drive these roads myself.
On the way to Monteverde, we stopped by the El Trapiche coffee plantation tour. The tour took a couple of hours, where we walked around the coffee farm and learnt about how coffee is made, from how the coffee beans are grown and harvested, to when they are dried, shelled, and roasted to the beans you see at the supermarket.
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| Part of the coffee plantation tour |
They also showed us the ox and cart that used to be used for transportation, and we all got a turn at a cart ride. After this we made taffy from sugar cane, which we spent the remaining van ride munching on. The tour also provided a tasty lunch for us.
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| Ox pressing the sugar cane into juice |
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Taffee made from sugar cane
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Next up was
ziplining. This is definitely the best zipline I've ever seen. I've never felt an adrenaline rush with a zipline before, I've never exactly thought of it as a thrillride. But here, the course offered a bit of everything.
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| Ziplining in Monteverde |
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| Bird just chilling out at the zipline office, socialising with passers by |
We leapt off a platform holding onto a tarzan rope for dear life. And the final show - the superman zipline. The ride was 1km (takes about 60 seconds) trekking between two mountains at a significant elevation over the valley between them. In classic superman pose we were face down, arms spread, flying in the wind on this one. Around the centre, you can feel the slight wobble in the wire from the wind pushing you sideways as you race forward. Not a ride for those with fear of heights, but you can still do the whole course and the final 1km line in the seated position if you want.
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| The 1km Superman zipline |
Arriving in Monteverde, we had the evening to ourselves. Mike and I took a brief walk around town and up to a sunset viewpoint recommended by our CEO. There was a cute puppy running around by the viewpoint that was very friendly, so Mike gave it a lot of attention. It then followed us all the way back to the hotel.
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| View of sunset from Monteverde |
There was an option to do a night walk later that night. I decided against it after the guide joked that it was mainly looking at spiders and other creepy-crawlies.
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| Cloud Forest |
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| Tree snake |
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Quetzal bird
(His head is looking the other way) |
The following day we took a tour of the cloud forest. The tour started with seeing a little coati making his way through the parking lot, then one of the guides showed us a green tree snake (not necessarily a Green Tree snake species though, like I could tell them apart), also in close proximity to the parking lot.
We followed the guided tour through the cloud forest, which has a diverse array of flora. Costa Rica, for it's small land size, has a huge concentration of differing species of plant and wildlife. We were lucky enough during the tour to get a view of the national bird - the beautiful quetzal.
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| Coati at the Cloud Forest park entrance |
After the Cloud Forest, Mike and I diverged from the group to go horse riding. This is the
best horse riding tour I've ever taken, and I'm an experienced rider. Marvin was an impressive horseman, as he showed us after the 2.5 hour ride when he did a short horse-whisperer style show with his most trained horse. He has trained all of the horses himself, and all respond well to very subtle gestures and voice commands. The horse I rode was equipped with a sadle and head halter - no bridle or bit needed.
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| Marvin with his horse |
He asked about our experience levels beforehand, and set me up with a racey enthusiastic horse that couldn't wait to go as fast as I would let him. Mike was put on a quieter horse that had a slower loping gait to suit his experience level. We saw a few viewpoints and spotted some sloths in the trees from the trail. At the end of the ride we visited Marvin's farm, where he showed us some tricks that no one should try at home, and even let me ride the horse in the pictures. Needless to say, we loved the whole experience from head to hoof.
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| Don't try this at home. |
Ont the second night in Monteverde, the group went to town at a local bar. We grabbed dinner and several drinks and had a fun party, dancing the night away. We had a bunch of excitement as we stumbled back to the hotel. Smoke was coming out of one of the buildings, and it was apparent that a fire had broken out. I should note that an entire block of housing was attached to the one on fire, and the nearest fire station didn't really exist. One of our groupmates happened to be a fire fighter back home. He rushed into the property to assess the situation, and found the family filling cups with water and attempting to throw them on the fire, which they had oddly enough managed to reduce it's intensity. They were screaming in Spanish that it was under control now and he was trying to tell them in English that he was trying to help. They weren't really understanding him, so he grabbed a broom and broke through the wall in their house - where the fire was raging on behind the wall. Together they did manage to successfully put out the fire. That was awesome, talk about having someone in the right place at the right time.
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| The boat view on the way from Arenal to Monteverde |
Monteverde also had a small township to explore (definitely worth a good walk through in the least, it takes an hour or two to explore adequately), a snake museum, and a butterfly garden which we didn't see.
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