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hummingbirdWe had a massive day today! We had to be up at 6am so Olly naturally blasted out Troublemaker again at us! Nooooo! We had breakie included in our hotel for the next 2 days which was good for saving money as we are just burning through cash in Costa Rica cos it is so expensive! It was simple – fruit, toast and some eggs but not too bad. We all piled into the van again and drove for about 20 mins into the cloud forest to meet our guide Christian. He was another super passionate guide which was funny and also really good! We walked around for about 2.5 hours spotting birds (Ben really has turned into the next bird whisperer and spotter! - who needed a guide!) and animals. We even managed to sort of see the Quetzale bird which is the Mayan sacred bird of Central America. It is very hard to spot and really beautiful. We managed to see it through Christian's telescope and take a pic but unfortunately its head was pretty much hidden. Ben took a pretty damn good pic of it from behind just with his naked eye – no telescope needed! We saw
some howler monkeys again and took some good pics. Ben also spotted a cool tucanette - a cousin of the tucan bird and we got a cool pic. We saw a family of these raccoon type looking things and we also saw the Tree of Life which has 200 other species of plant growing on it. This was the tree that the movie Avatar was based on apparently. We also stopped at a waterfall which was quite pretty. After 2.5 hours and an early start after a not great sleep I had had enough at this point! We all went and saw a hanging bridge quickly and then made our way back to the hummingbird garden at the start and got a coffee. The birds were crazy and I am sure they def have ADHD! We managed to get some awesome pics of them though despite how fast they were blurring past us! Such cool colours!
We got dropped off back in Monteverde town with an hour to have lunch and get down to the tour company place ready to start ziplining. We had lunch at this taco place and had really yummy burritos. I got a small one
and it was the perfect size for me. Ben got a 'grande' and it was GIANORMOUS! We sat on these weird tyre seats and tables in the sun which was really nice. Once stuffed full I felt the need to get another juice from the Orchid Garden where we had lunch yesterday as it was seriously the best juice ever! So we got one take away and drank it on the way to ziplining.
Quite a lot of our group signed up for ziplining which was really cool. We got there and there was a few people super super nervous as we harnessed up! Understandably. We had been told there was 15 ziplines and a tarzan swing. Ben and I looked them up on YouTube and they looked so fun and the tarzan swing looked amazing but a wee bit scary! It had been raining on an off the whole time we had been in Costa Rica so far so we all put trousers and a jacket on incase and thank good we did in the end cos it ended up raining pretty hard. We had a lesson initially showing us how to hold on etc and how to
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tucanette break. Then we walked up to the first zipline. It was a pretty simple one but we got told to make a circle with our index finger and thumb and not touch the wire otherwis eyou break. I really struggled not to touch it as the hole between fingers wasnt big enough! So I was spinning quite a bit and when we got to the 2
nd zipline it was much faster and my glove got caught as I spun so I freaked out cos my glove got eaten up a bit and I got told off at the end for touching the cable!! Grr so at this point Ben was loving it and I was getting a wee bit stressed about my hand! Thankfully on the 4
th or 5
th one someone suggest using my middle finger and thumb to make a circle which makes a bigger one and from then on I was fine and it was sooooo much fun! On about our 5
th line it was about 650m long and cos it was pretty windy we got asked to go in a tandem. It was so so much fun especially for me cos I was in the front and
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howler monkey just held onto my cable and ben was at the back with his hand on the wire breaking etc when we needed! WE absolutely flew down the zipline with me screaming and Ben wahoooing! It was brilliant! The next 3 were back to back and no time for stopping in between each or to even think about what we were doing. We we above the tree tops and in the clouds and each line was between 250m to 1km long! Crazy!
After we had done 14 line we got to the tarzan swing. By this stage it was pouring with rain and we were saturated. One of our friends John wasnt allowed to do it cos you had to be under 90kg sadly. But about 5 of us did it and it was the best thing everf! You stand at the top facing forward and jump of with no tension on the harness for the first second but feet first. Then the hardness grabs and you get swung! It was the biggest coolest swing I have ever been on! The guys at the bottom were a bit killjoy and kept trying to stop us swinging to cut our time
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the hollow inside of a gianormous strangler tree short! I was like 'noooo'! They grabbed one of bens legs to stop him and pulled his groin! So he was a wee bit cripple afterwards! But OMG totally recommend this swing even though it looks scary! Wahhhoooey so much fun!!
After the Tarzan we had one more line to go on. The 1km line!! It was a tandem one which we were excited about cos we went faster and I was pleased cos didnt have to hold onto the wire. We reached the top and you could see maybe 50m into this 1km long wire and then the rest was just clouds and mist! It was like going into heaven!! 😊 So we climbed on, Ben wrapped his legs around meand he didnt break at all and we went hurtling down this wire!! It was raining so much that it was like pins on our faces as we burned it down and it wasnt til about half way that we started to look around and look at the scenery which was actually quite difficult cos of all the mist! We had been told to break when I saw the guy at the end putting his hands up at
us! We couldnt see anything till the very last minute which actually made it more fun as we slammed into the stopper at the other end! Completely safe!! They took an after shot on our camera and I am still gasping for air! Its pretty funny! We were all totally pumped and loved every second of it! Ben's fear of heights I think has been cured!
After we had taken all of our gear off we headed for the 8 hanging bridges. They were all between 20-30m high and up to 150m long. They were actually quite scary I thought. Especially cos they started swinging in the middle. Ben wasn't scared at all! It was amazing! He was peering over the edges and we both even did a handstand on the bridge at one point! I think he is def cured! Wahoo! It was really pretty on the bridges as we were still above the tree tops! Such beautiful nature sounds also. Costa Rica really is gorgeous! Fun fact of the day – if you do a self shot with your camera and turn your camera upside down it doesnt get the arm of the person taking it! Good
to know!! 😊
We got back to the hotel around 5pm and the Canadians – who didnt do the hanging bridges with us, had done some research and found us a 'soda' – cafe, to go to for dinner. So, the 5 of us headed off on our own, escaping yet another giant group dinner where it takes ages for our food to come out! It was so yummy! Ben and I both had fish and were both really happy! We then went back and Peter had decided to buy a pineapple yesterday! He only had a lil knife that you take travelling with you! We had all tried to tell him he wouldnt be able to cut a pineapple with it! But he was determined and it was hilarious trying to watch him prove us wrong! We were all right except him and he had to go into the kitchen and ask for a massive knife to finish the job! So the next 1 hour we taught them how to play spades and ate fresh pineapple! It was delicious and Ben won spades his first timeplaying! Lil card shark that he is!! We had a really fun and
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the gorgeous quetzale long day so were all asleep by 10am ready for our relatively early start again tomo as we head to Manuel Antonio!
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OMG...it looks so high!
Great blog...great pics! I love the description of the birds being ADHD! Ben...I am so impressed with you conquering your fear of heights...a handstand on the swinging bridge....un-freakin-believable! Thanks for writing the blogs with so much detail...it makes us feel like we are actually there...which on this occasion, is not somewhere I would ever choose to be! Pleased you are having so much fun. Love to you both. x