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Published: July 29th 2016
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So what was the question again? within a week we decided , planned and implemented - Iceland? - too stark, Canadian Rockies ? my brother asked me - didn't we grow up in the Rockies? so Costa Rica it was !
18 hours later we landed in a country that is blanketed in green. Costa Rica has many options of where to visit but i decided that we were going to make three stops, Monteverde for the cloud forest, Osa penninsula at the far south end of CR and then to finish up near a volcano near San Jose.
One of the things that one learns about these forests and jungles are the terminology of
primary forest -which means original forest and
secondary growth which is the vegetation that springs up in the wake of some disturbance.
On our list of things to do was to zip line over the forest and then tour it from within . So to get our hearts pounding we whizzed along 1/7 miles of cables slung between towering trees and as i zipped from one platform to the next via horizontal cables .I found myself thinking in terms of primary and secondary forest Ideas . My primary thought as I was barreling over the cloud forest - screaming “ why am I doing this?” and that secondary thought was who is the crazy man who thought that this would be a good idea?
I guess i was giving off a sense of fear on the verge of hysteria as we zipped from station to station. in the middle of the 8th station out of nowhere zipped behind me a "zipping guide" by the name of Jonathan - who must have zipped with many Israelis since he new our famous childhood song yonatan
hakatan..surprise he new my name he sang out Madam Brenda- I am here to zip with you - i looked at him totally relieved and at the same time asked “ i flunked zipping?”
who cares I was able to enjoy the last run that was over a a 1000 meters until we came to the end of the line and a great laugh.
We unbuckled ourselves and off we went to our guided to tour with Walter to learn about the cloud forest. High off the excitement of the zip line we slowly found ourselves quieting down under the canopy of trees, ferns and stuff you just know what it is. we walked across rivers by hanging bridges with monkeys eating figs from above and occasionally relieving itself- watch out! it seemed that every plant was fighting for its life to get some light and photosynthesis. Trees that leached onto other trees and used them as a stepping ladder to survive. While this forest seemed so peaceful you were actually witnessing the the survival of the fittest. Walter was telling us that were over 2000 species of plants, birds and whatever - and all i
wanted to know is who is the guy is counting and taking the tally?
you would think that after 7 hours of hiking and zipping we would call it a day but we decided to take a night tour to see what lurks in the dark as we sleep in our hotel room. horhe- George for the rest of us - picked us up at sunset and took us to the Curi Cancha reserve where we went looking for things that are creepy. We started the tour by me asking him about puma’s in the reserve and he went on to tell us with great enthusiasm that he once saw a puma but the puma just kept walking. With that comment off we went to discover the cutest little frogs, stick insects, sleeping colourful birds, scorpions that were totally camouflaged except when he shown an ultra violet light on it , to a poor sloth that descends only once a week from the high mountains to go to the bathroom at the bottom of the forest to find Jeff and me taking pictures. ugh.. so after 3 wonderful days down we went through the dirt roads and
highway w to the other end of Costa Rica
Osa Peninsula here we come!
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