Sunday, August 18, 2019

Costa Rica Adventure: Day 12 - Hanging Bridges

Greetings and welcome to sunny Monteverde! The sun was actually shining this morning so that’s a win. Also, happy birthday to Shannon. Shannon got to celebrate her birthday up in the cloud forests of Monteverde and we had a big day planned to go along with it.

Today was one of the few days this entire trip where we had a planned activity with transportation to pick us up. Our pickup time was 7:50 am for our AirBnB en route to Selvatura Park so we could explore their cloud forest and series of hanging bridges. We originally considered driving ourselves but after taking the shuttle we are sure glad we didn’t. That was one very bumpy ride we’d rather not put the rental car through. At Selvatura there are eight bridges ranging length from 170 feet to 560 feet and they are considered by many to be the best way to experience the cloud forest from above. While the hanging bridges activity is popular we took our time and were rewarded with moments where we had the bridges and cloud forest all to ourselves. At was at these times you could just closes your eyes and listen to all the sounds and smell the crisp air. On the final bridge we even encountered a family of monkeys in the trees right next to the bridge. There were several babies as well and it was amazing to be able to observe them so close.

By 11:00 am we were done and took the shuttle back to our house so we could cook up some lunch. We also took advantage of the little down time to put away some of the laundry before having to head out again. We booked a night hike with a guide which provides the best opportunity to find a variety of animals that are otherwise difficult to locate. Anthony also had a special surprise location to take Shannon. First, however Shannon requested ice cream for her birthday. If you recall from yesterday there is a large Quaker population in Monteverde that are dairy farmers. As a result the area is known for outstanding cheese and ice cream! We’ve been enjoying Monteverde cheese already for our entire vacation but today we also got to try their incredibly delicious and creamy ice cream. It was great!

Next up was the surprise location. We went to the Treehouse Restaurant & Cafe. Usually, a name like this would not be taken literally but in this case the restaurant is actually build around a very large tree that you have to climb through via a narrow staircase. This restaurant gets top marks for location but not so much on its food so the plan was to just stop in and have a drink while sitting next to a tree as something unique for Shannon’s birthday. The drinks were a little pricy but actually tasted very good. Shannon said it was the best iced mocha she’d had and the girls loved their mango milkshakes.

By now it was time to meet up with the guide Anthony booked with for a night hike at the Wildlife Refuge Monteverde. We got there a little early just as it started to rain a little bit. By the time our guide, Oscar, arrived the thunder and lightning started as well. We tried to wait for the storm to pass but in the end Oscar called it off for safety and because the likelihood of seeing anything in this weather was low. We decided to reschedule for the following day and hope for better weather.

So that ends our birthday extravaganza in Monteverde. It ended up not being as jam packed due to weather but as a result we now have a slightly more jam packed day planned for tomorrow that includes two cloud forests and hopefully locating a ficus tree.
 
The birthday girl!





So much diversity 







A visitor stopped by our house

The tree behind us was in the restaurant 

Playing with the 360 camera



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