Monteverde

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Monteverde. Monteverde is a small town in a very hilly region of Costa Rica. It is in fact two towns, Santa Elena being the main town tourists visit. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the American gentleman and I were heading over to Monteverde together. We met our shuttle in the morning and it took us to a boat. We took the boat across the river to another shore, which did not even have a dock, where we met another set of shuttles which would take us up into the hills of Monteverde. Despite its hilliness, and it is really steep and hilly, the area around Monteverde is still worked by farmers. Most of the fields had cows who roamed around and grazed freely. The drive, like most in Central America, is not far in distance but takes a long time to finish because of roads. It is also a terrible road to be on if you have to pee and are the last drop off in the van. Luckily I got out at one of the hotels while the dirver waited for me!

This was the stage in my hostelling where I was trying to stay at smaller hostels and avoid party hostels. This may be a good idea in the high season but in the low season it means you will meet almost no one. This hostel, as with BBB in La Fortuna, was owned and run by a family who lived in part of the hostel. It was a confusing day when I arrived, the owner told me, because the family dog had just been hit by a car. While I agreed this was sad I could not help thinking this must happen a lot because dogs run around without any supervision pretty much every where in Central America.

One of the top activities in Monteverde is ziplining. For those of you who do not know what this is, it is when you put yourself in a harness with a pully on it, attach yourself to a wire which goes from one platform in the trees to another and slide along it. I have never been ziplining before so figured I would give it a try.

When I arrived the guys strapped me into the harness and gave me a safety helmet. As the only English speaker in the group I got my own private break down of how to zipling safely. You just pull up with the weight of you body, the guy teaching me said, do not pull with you arm just lift your weight to stop. Sounds easy enough. In fact I found it really difficult and kept grabbing on instead of lifting myself. You should not only avoid doing this because it is not a good way to slow down but also because it reall hurts your arm!

So here I am zipping through the trees and it is startin to rain a bit, which makes me nervous, but in Costa Rica a little rain and lighting in the distance, its nothing! I got to do a superman zipline as well, where you attach the harness to your back and fly like superman, which went over a forested valley. It was super beautiful and amazing.

The last part of the zipline tour, which I had not realised until I had already paid was part of the package, was a bungee jump. Growing up I remember hearing all kinds of horrible stories about people bungee jumping and dying. I believe there we incidents like this in the nineties at La Ronde. Anyway, it freaks me out and I have always said I would rather skydive (which one day I will) than bungee jump. Alas, here I am, in the Costa Rican rainforest and I am being asked if I want to do it. I let everyone go first. From where we were standing you couldn´t see them jumping only hear their whoops of fear or joy as they took the plunge.

At last it was my turn. I walked to the end of the platform, let them hook my harness up the bungee and looked down. It was a big drop. Incredibly big. The guys adjusting my harness told me I could go. I stood on the edge of the platform in hysterics. I was laughing and by breathing was off. I could not simply step off the platform as they guys told me to do. I stepped back and said I wouldn´t do it. There was one girl left, the girlfriend of one of the guides. They strapped her in and I stayed on the platform to watch her jump. As she fell through the sky I was afraid the rope would not catch her but the bungee did and she swung back and forth as she lost momentum. Ok, I thought I will do this. The guides strapped me back in. I stood on the edge of the platform, still near hysterical but I summed off the courage and stepped off the platform.

There is nothing like free falling through the air. It is almost heart stopping, which I guess is the point, but it freaked the shit out of me. And even once the bungee catches you, you spring back up and away, semi-freefalling again. It was very terrifying, but in the end I am glad I did it. I don´t ever have to do it again!

After this I went back to the hostel and being one of the only people there cooked myself dinner and made my plans for the next day. I wanted to visit the rainforests and check out the cheese factor.

The Monteverde Cheese Factory was begun by Quakers who left the United States because of the draft. They chose Costa Rica because they do not have a military and the land is farmable. They walked all the way in with their horse and cows and set up shop. Today they operate the cheese factory along with other local farmers in the area, which explains all the cows. Watching the cheese process was interesting and sort of odd. The making of cheese is very strange and I could definitely see my giving it up because of the process, veganism you may not be so far away. We also got to taste the cheese which, goodbye veganism, was quite tasty.

In the afternoon I took a taxi to the Santa Elena Rainforest. It was raining, as usual, and I think I was the only person in the part. The forest was absolutely beautiful in its lush, green beauty but I was dismayed not to see any animals. The owner of the hostel had said the Children´s Rain Forest was better for animal sightings but I had heard good things about Santa Elena. Animals or not, I was not too worried because I was going on a night tour of the rainforest where I hoped to see more animals.

On the night tour I really hoped to see a sloth as they are generally more visible at night. I was disappointed however and did not see one. I did however see a kinkajou, which I had not expected and was very cool. Amongst the other animals our guide pointed out were a tarantuala, a cockroach or cucaracha (which was oh so exciting!), a very green poisonous snake (and just so you know they can only throw themselves one third of their length for all you jungle walkers), some cool looking beetles and a strangling fig tree. It was definitely fun but I am not sure I would reccomend a night tour if you just want to see animals.

That night I returned to find some new people had arrived in my hostel. At last, company! It was nice to have some conversation. This night I also worked out where to go next: the beach!- came my resounding reply. I was ready for more sun and some relaxing.

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