2021 September - Day 02 - Costa Rica - Monteverde Zip Lining & Night Walk

 I’m back…day 2 of our Costa Rica trip.  We were rested well at our Costa Del Sol hotel by the port of Calderas.   We had one problem with the toilet in that it clogged quickly.  We had to wait until the morning to request a plunger.  And with all my plumbing experience, I was able to free the ‘caca’ blockage.  Breakfast seems to be always a part of the deal.  So we ate in the same restaurant found under our room that we did last night.  We had a choice of a few things.  But in the end we had huevos ( fried or scrambled eggs), fresh fruit, jugo de naranja and I had some rice and beans prepared the Costa Rican way.  It was a good breakfast.

We left the hotel around 9 AM heading to the Monteverde area and the cloud forest.  The drive, even on their ‘big highway 1’ was single lanes, quite a few pot holes and so on.  But when we left highway 1 on to road 606, it became amazing…amazingly curvy, quite a bit more potholes and a pretty good climb up the mountain.  But it was extremely beautiful.  It took us about 1.5 hours to arrive at our BnB here.  So we showed up early.  They were really kind about it.  I began to ask the guy about getting to Selvatura Park to do some Zip Lining.  He said they would pick us up and that one of the tours was at 10:30 AM…which time it was.  And I kid you not, but the bus was just passing our BnB while the front desk guy was talking to him.  So I ran got Denise, moved the car, emptied the car giving our bags to the front desk young to store and then boarded the bus praying our stuff would be there when we returned.  But off we went on a 20 minute non-paved ride up higher into the mountains to fly over the jungle canopy.  Because I boarded the bus so quickly, I forgot to grab my mask.  But fortunately,  a couple from Palestine\Israel had a mask that had not been used.  So he gave it to me.

Zip Lining…not necessarily my cup of tea.   Heights are tough for me.  But it is odd.  I get more scared on the platforms than being hung from a cable zooming over a forest.  Who knows why.  The experience was pretty amazing.  I think they had 13 platforms that we launched from.  Some were short…others really long.  It took 2.5 hours to do it mostly because we were with about another 10 people from many locations in the world.  Naturally I tried to talk to most to learn about them and where they were from.  That is always fun to do.  By the time we were done, we were pretty wet from sweat.  We did a good amount of hiking up the mountains at some points.  We aren’t the best hikers with great stamina.  But we did going our own pace.  I think the oldest other person there was probably only 30 years old.  But we held our own.  We did purchase the picture package which should be online fairly soon.  We will share if anyone wants to see the pictures.  Maybe I’ll download a few for here.  Oh…and on one of the last platforms they had a Tarzan swing.  Denise sucked it up and did and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I weighed to much…would have snapped the rope!  Anyway…a ton of fun at Selvatura Park.

Our BnB is called the Camino Verde.  It sits on the edge of the mountain with a panoramic view from the dining area of the mountains and valley.  The Front Desk said that you can see the Pacific Ocean on a clear day.  But…they don’t call this the Cloud Forest for nothing.  As I write this, I feel like I’m doing it in a cloud.  The town is engulfed in a cloud…foggy, misty…loving it much.  Our room is not one with a view….bummer.  Can’t luck out twice.   But what do you expect for $60.  It is pretty darn nice for that price.  It is much smaller than last nights room.  But it is still very comfortable.  Santa Elena is very hilly.  The center is only a 5 minute walk which we made to find a late lunch\early dinner.  We were told to go to one of the ‘Sodas’ … which are mom and pop places where food is made and sold.  We followed our Front Desk’s recommendation…but upon getting there…we were told they were closed and would open tomorrow.  Pretty odd it was.  Anyway, we reversed course and headed toward town and ended up at Taco, Taco.  Yep…Mexican food.  Pretty good though.  We’ll find some native Costa Rican food soon enough.  After enjoying the meal, we went to the Super Market to buy some travel snacks for tomorrow and more bottled water.  We then walked back to the BnB to rest before we do our next adventure…a Night Walk.  I’ve read and heard these are a lot of fun.  So more to come on that…along with pictures.

We just returned from the Night Walk.   It was interesting…walking in the dark with really small flashlights, stomping in the mud and water, hoping the lightening and thunder did not turn into a massive rainstorm like last night, looking for insects, animals…anything that moved.  We saw some nice stuff, Tarantula, Toucan, distinct frogs, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, etcetera.  But the hope of the tour…a Sloth…was no where to be seen.  And fortunately we did not see a Puma.  All in all the 2 hour walk up and down the side of a mountain was a fun unique experience.  We were with 2 other couples.  One couple was from Israel although the young girl was from Jersey.  The other couple was a pair of ladies from Switzerland.  We did have a nice discussion with a fellow doing a solo trip down here who lives in Montreal.  But his parents are from El Salvador so he spoke really good Spanish.  He had never done a solo trip like this before.  Interesting.  

Well, we are pooped (caca’d).  We are learning that we are not supposed to put toilet paper down the toilets in Costa Rica.  Now we know what happened last night….it wasn’t the caca.   Until tomorrow.

Pictures:

Our elevator in our first hotel.  It was quite unique.

My Tarzan wife.  Well she has too much clothing on to be Jane.  But she did have a lot of fun doing this swing.  At first she hesitated. But then her Lagoon mentality go to her and she braved it and loved it.

Denise getting worried as the prepare to put the harness equipment on us.

The drives here look like this always.  So lush and green.  I’m not sure when this was taken but I assume it was on our drive up to Santa Elena where we are staying at tonight.  Yes…looking closer it is.  The following pictures show the same road too.

This is what the Google Map had for our drive to Monteverde.  I don’t think you can go over 35 MPH. 

Enjoying breakfast this morning at our hotel and restaurant.

Lush and beautiful.  It is pretty amazing country here.

Denise getting ready to launch.  She did not scream like some of the girls did.  The last line was the longest and we did it together.  But some paid extra to do it Superman style (on their bellies).  A few of the  girls had a hard time pushing off they were so scared in being a Superwoman!

More views of the country side….

This was our first hotel looking back at it as we left the area.  On the other side of our car was the Pacific Ocean.

Happy Zip Liners….at least one was!

Some pictures of bugs and things from our night hike.  The first one is a cool spider and its web.

The guide new where this guy lived…a Tarantula.  He put a long stick into his home and eventually he came out chasing it.  It was fun to see.

A nice centipede and all its legs.  The guide gave great details about all these insects, animals and such.  That was fun to listen on all that.

One of the many small frogs we found along the way.  We did see one frog who was transparent.  You can see into its body and see its organs.  This is not that frog.  Not sure the name of this one.  Anyway…it was an interesting experience.