Next stop was Santa Elena / Monteverde which has the pull of the famous Cloud Forest reserves and wildlife. Most people take the exciting sounding 'jeep-boat-jeep' option from La Fortuna which is supposedly the quickest route. The Costa Rican marketing people have added some spin here – its really minibus-boat-minibus which is much less exciting!! Roads again were pretty diabolical and the journey was very rough but the boat ride provided a nice interlude. The views back to the volcano were awesome and had some fun playing with a new polariser i'd bought for my camera (a lens filter that removes the reflection on water and makes fluffy clouds against a blue sky so much more impressive) - check out the pic in the previous post!
When i arrived in Santa Elena I met up some friends i'd made in La Fortuna as well as making some new friends. I am starting to meet people everywhere I go now and feel confident chatting away with randoms everywhere which is fantastic and exactly the experience i wanted. I had been getting a bit fed up lately of living in London with the unfriendly nature of people and the habit that people have of not even acknowledging others (like on the tube). I went on an adventure to Ben Nevis / Scotland in the Autumn and i'd loved how friendly and chatty the Scots had been - i had really noticed the difference. This trip too was also proving to be a refreshing contrast to my life in London.
There are some must dos in Costa Rica and top of the list must be to do a canopy tour. It seems to be offered in most places but Monteverde I think is considered the best for it. I did the 'extremo' option – gently bullied into it by a new friend (thanks Ulla!!) The extremo canopy tour is basically 14 cables set in the treetops . The zip lines are crazily long and the tour also includes a tarzan swing, rappel and a final superman for some extra spice! For the tarzan swing you have to step off a high platform, freefall for a split second before the swing kicks in. I was pretty scared about this having watched a few others in the group do it first. Everyone had let out a very worrying scream!! Just the feeling of stepping off without the feel of anything supporting you. In the end two guys had to push me off the edge before i let out a huge scream - all just for the entertainment of the crowd of course !!! I don't think i'll ever be doing a bungy jump. The superman is the last zip line which is a 1km long cable across a huge valley. For the final superman you get strapped to the cable horizontally underneath and then 'fly' across a huge valley. Its the longest of all the zip lines at 1km long. It was such a breathtaking experience - i'm glad i did it.
After the adrenaline fueled action it was time to check out the nature of the cloud forests. Instead of wandering around the reserve during the day looking at plants and stuff (apparently you don't get to see much wildlife during the day), i opted for an organised night tour with a guide in search of the wildlife. The tour was great and with the help of the guide and torches we managed to see a sloth, possum, leaf cutting ants, other bugs and frogs, sleeping birds as well as a big ol' tarantula !!
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