Hanging Bridges

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Less than an hour away from Arenal, we stopped for a hike in the rain forest that involves 2 miles of trails and five or six long suspension bridges through the forest canopy. The trail is very steep, taking you both up and down, and is paved with a honeycomb pattern stone that is there to provide traction in the wet conditions. It works well for that purpose, but it sure is difficult to walk on!



With the heat and humidity, and the steep trails, it seems like the longest 2 miles ever. Steve is stubborn, and would not give up, so we hiked the whole trail. Being in the middle of this amazing green rain forest is something that is hard to describe. We had a bit of drizzle, but mostly it was just mist. Thank goodness it didn't pour like the last time we were here. And we were also thankful for the cloudy conditions. With sun, the heat and humidity would have been a lot worse.



Caravan provides guides here as well, even though there is not the amount of wildlife we saw along the rivers. But without them, we would have missed the things that we did see. We saw a small green pit viper, and another red poison dart frog. He was sitting on a leaf, singing his little throat out. Steve managed to get a picture of him with his throat puffed out, singing his mating song.



After our morning hike, we had a very long bus ride over some rough roads heading away from the mountains toward the Pacific Coast. The land gets drier, and the grass turns brown as you travel farther. There is a lot of cattle ranching in this area, and the houses and towns are generally less poor and more developed.

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