Day 6: Magnifico Mistico

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Today we opted for another suspended bridge trek, this time at Mistico hanging bridges. We enjoyed the Monteverde one a lot, and since this was a different eco-system (tropical rainforest instead of cloud forest) we jumped right in. Our guide, Indira, was remarkably knowledgeable and brought with her a scope we could use when she spotted something. As an added bonus, she was able to take pictures through the scope with a small lense camera...which anyone with a smart phone has! Wheeee.

We saw the most critters so far here. Here are the ones I can remember: sloths, howler monkeys, two kinds of bats, lots of birds (motmot, white hawk and others), leaf cutter ants and some totes adorbs hummingbirds. We also had a short detour off the main trail to see some waterfalls up close. This hike was very hilly, but the paths were well maintained.

There was so much information we got from our guide that it is hard to remember it all, even though it was relentlessly fascinating. So what did I learn? Hummingbirds are super territorial, one of the sloths favourite tree is the brocoli tree (and they only come to the ground once a week to “use the bathroom”) and the queen leaf cutter ant lays eggs every 2 minutes to keep the ant population going (workers live only about one month). Nerd heaven.

Favourite quote from our guide on this trek (her mother’s advice on dealing with difficult people): “correct with love”.

Next: If you want to save the world, go see it.

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