Monteverde Cloud Forest

---

The first installment in the blog catch-up posts is our visit to Monteverde Cloud Forest. Steve's mom (Linda) arrived from California on Thursday the 6th and we drove up to Monteverde on the following Saturday morning. The 25-mile road off the highway to Monteverde is notoriously bad but they recently paved the first 8 miles so it was not too awful. The vistas are amazing as you climb upward; you can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

After checking into our rustic but inexpensive accommodations (it was one of the first lodgings constructed by the Quakers who settled there in the 1950s), we spent our afternoon at Selvatura - a complex of canopy bridges and a huge zipline "course." Only Steve wanted to participate in the latter, so while Nancy, Linda, and the boys walked above the cloud forest on sturdy bridges, he soared across the sky in hopes that the safety gear was all in good condition. Both parties found the experience spectacular. The more grounded group even saw a family of 5 howler monkeys - something that is a little tough to spot when you are whizing by at 30 miles an hour. The 2 hour zipline trip consisted of 17 different segments, totaling 1.8 miles, with the largest being about 2000 feet across at a height of 300 feet above the ground! And Steve joined a few other brave souls in doing the "Tarzan Drop" which consisted of jumping off a tower about 30 feet tall and swinging off into the jungle before being brought back down to earth. Unfortunately, as we only had one camera, there is no photographic documentation of his exploits (he swears he was not sitting in the bar the whole time!).

We had planned to go on a night hike at the Children's Rain Forest Reserve (so named because children all over the world had raised the funds to purchase the land). However, we were delayed coming down the mountain when a bus full of German toursists just ahead of our shuttle bus was hit by a falling cable from a different canopy/zipline. The cable sliced through and became stuck in the roof-top air conditioning unit, thereby immobilizing the bus in such a way that our bus could not get around. As it turned out, it was a bit of a blessing in disguise as 15 minutes after the tour would have started there was a torrential downpour - which we observed from the warm, dry safety of a great Italian restaurant.

The next day was a morning-long tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We (well, actually Grandma Linda) spent the extra money to hire a guide - and boy was it worth it. Jorge was fantastic. We were paired with another family with 2 girls about the ages of Kyle & Sam and he was really great explaining things in ways that were interesting to both the kids and the adults. But perhaps the best thing about him was his skill at locating birds in the thick canopy. We managed to see 3 resplendant quetzals - considered by many to be the most beautiful bird in the world. Kyle was in heaven. We also went to the hummingbird garden, which was quite fun watching those amazing little birds hover and whiz by your head. On the walk there, Jorge stopped and showed us a tarantula that has nested - the picture we took will freak you out.

So, it was a great trip and a wonderful start to Steve's mom's visit.

---