Costa Rica Part 4

Next we went to Monteverde, which means green mountain. It was a beautiful, slow and curvy drive to get there. We stayed in another very nice hotel not far from the center of town. One of our first activities was to go horseback riding, which I always enjoy. The next morning we had a guided hike through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. This was another rainforest, but since the elevation was much higher they call it cloud forest. Luckily we had good weather so we were able to see a lot. We spotted lots of hummingbirds, beautiful flowers, birds, and insects. We also took a night hike that evening where we saw 2 tarantulas!

The next day we all went zip lining!! Monteverde is known for this activity due to the elevation and gorgeous scenery! I went zip lining in South Africa, but that was nothing compared to this. We went on 15 cables many of which were over 1500 feet long. We were approximately 225-540 feet high in the air!! On one cable I looked down and saw cows grazing in the pasture below!! If all of that wasn't enough they also have a Tarzan Swing, which I forced myself to do. It was the only part of the tour that I found scary, but I was glad I did it. Here is a video of the Tarzan Swing so you can get an idea. The girl is not me because I am taking the video.

The final cable is 1 kilometer long and they give you the option of going superman style! I had planned on doing it, but I changed my mind after I went on the Tarzan Swing. It was still awesome to do it the normal way. In my slide show you will see some pics of Magnus doing the superman style though.

Our final activity in Monteverde was a Sugar and Coffee Plantation Tour. We got to see how they grow and process both sugarcane and coffee. I do not drink coffee, but I still found it interesting. The best part was the candy we got to make using the pure molassess they made using the sugarcane. It was yummy! We also got to ride in an ox drawn cart, which was pretty funny. Other highlights in Monteverde were the cheap and delicious tacos from the Taco Taco stand we found as well as the famous Monteverde cheeses. We also had some seriously fun Uno games in the evening!

I attached another slideshow as well.