Costa Rica - Day 7 - Quetzels in the Clouds

The next morning we head to the official Monteverde National Cloud Forest and arranged to join a guided tour so we could learn as much as possible along our hike. It was the 3 of us, plus another couple with our guide and before we could even set off unto the path she spotted the famous quetzel and she set up her small telescope for us to take a closer look. The guide did her secret whistle and before we knew it we were surrounded by other guides and tourists trying to spot the infamous bird. I mean, the bird is pretty and all - but I didn't really get how big of a deal it was. I think we ended up seeing 5 during the hike that morning.


There were no big animal sightings (other than another coatimundi high up in the canopy), but even all of the little things that our guide pointed out were incredibly interesting. The cloud forest itself is just an amazing place to be and your neck starts to hurt after a while from looking upward and trying to take it all in.

We saw various small birds, more Strangler Fig Trees, and a particularly group of caterpillars that line up in a row so that all of them together gives the appearance of a snake to keep the pesky birds away.

The end of the tour brought us to the hummingbird garden and we saw countless fast flittering wings as the birds fed. The 2nd biggest hummingbird in the world is found in Costa Rica and is a brilliant blue color.

After grabbing a quick bite, the 3 of us set out to hike a bit and headed out on the Continental Divide Trail. We crossed over a pretty neat suspension bridge, but there were no big animal sightings along the way. The hike led us out to a viewpoint at the edge of one of the mountains and we got to look out over the cloud forest and see the alleged divide.

I easily could have hiked through the jungle all day, but we had to head back towards San Jose since our flight was early the next morning. We made plans with Pauline and her 2 friends to meet up at the same hostel that night in Heredia, a burb of San Jose.

We flew out early the next morning and gazed over the mountainous and volcanic terrain below. Adios for now Costa Rica! :(

Costa Rica - Day 6 - Swinging through the Canopy, Tarzan Style

Waking up early, we continued down the Intercoastal on the way toward Monteverde. We turned off the nice paved highway, onto the dirt road leading up into the cloud forests of Monteverde. The road to the famed cloud forest is said to be just as famous - a bumpy, dirt road that winds up and into the clouds through farmland. Judging by the amount of construction workers on the road, I'm going to guess it takes a lot of upkeep to keep the road drivable when it is likely washed out due to the frequent showers.

We arrived in the small sister towns of Monteverde and Santa Elena (I never could distinguish which one I was in at which times) and immediately set out to find The Original Canopy Tour. We followed signs up a steep road and arrived at a luxury hotel which had been the first to run the famed canopy tours many years ago. We walked in and they asked for our reservations which we definitely had not set up. Luckily, another group canceled and the three of us set off with 2 guides hiking into the rainforest.

This canopy tour was definitely the most "touristy" activity that we did on our CR trip, but it was a ton of fun and completely worth it! Our first stop was at the tarzan swing, and it did look kinda lame, but when you jumped off the platform you went swinging high up through the trees and it was actually pretty awesome.


After the tarzan swing and a bit more hiking we went from zipline to zipline to zipline, higher and higher into the canopy.

The cloud forest canopies are an amazing thing with an entire ecosystem living up in the treetops. It was amazing to see the diversity of plant and animal life that occupies the canopies.

One of my favorite plant species is called a Strangler Fig Tree. The seeds of a Strangler Fig is dropped on top of an existing tree by birds and it begins its life as an epiphyte, growing on top of the existing tree. Eventually the Fig's roots grow hundreds of feet down to the forest floor and complete envelope the host tree, eventually killing it. The interior tree, slowly decomposes and leaves a hollow interior to the Strangler Fig which we actually got to climb up inside of!


After the fun, albeit touristy canopy tour we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to one of the many ecological sanctuaries in the area for an afternoon hike. We had the sanctuary mostly to ourselves and hiked out to various viewpoints, overlooking the gorgeous rain forest.


Besides the gorgeous flowers around every corner of the trail, I managed to spot two Agoutis - a large guinea pig like animal that is orangish in color and WAY too fast for any picture snapping opportunities.



After leaving the park, we found a small museum called The Bat Jungle, and since I'm all about some caves and bats the three of us decided to go since it was still open. Again, we had luck on our side and a group had canceled and left us with the brilliant bat doctor, and owner of the museum as our guide. He was impressed with my little bit of knowledge of bats and of the white nose syndrome pandemic that is spreading to bats throughout the Northeast corner of the US, and by now has even spread as far south as Tennessee. The most interesting part of the museum for me was the room where he kept several different varieties of fruit bats. He had a device that converted the bats talking decibel range to one that we humans can hear, so we could hear the bats communicating with each other. There was one particularly pissed off momma bat that would NOT shut up, but it was fascinating to hear how much they communicated with one another.



That night when the three of us were walking to grab a beer, we had an amazing "The World is a small, small place" moment when we ran into a former Couchsurfer of mine, Pauline. She was checking out part of Central America before she head back to Paris and we just happened to run into her in the small cloud forest town of Monteverde!!!! Amazing!