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Published: November 14th 2006
One of the zip lines
It's not me, but you can pretend. I look jolly similar when suspended on a thin cableAfter slight dissapointment at the Volcano experience (although i keep forgetting the aceness of the thermal spa) in La Fortuna, Monteverde had a lot of work to do. After arrival last night we had lengthy discussions as to what was the best course of action (we incidentally is still myself and Emma, the girl from the Valparriso blogs in Chile) for the next day.
Monteverde as an area pretty much offers the lot in terms of activities that a Marc might be interested in. There's a cheese factory that offers tours (i'll forever regret the fact i couldn't fit this in, however i would like to point out i did go to a cheese factory in New Zealand, to anyone doubting my lack of cheese love - its still huge), coffee plantations with tours, zip lines through the rainforest, canopy walks over the top of the forest, quad biking..anything basically.
We opted in the end to concentrate on the things that were unique to the region, and hence booked in for a zip line (like a fly by wire) tour of pristine Costa Rican rainforest. Well, perfect but for the huge zip line towers we would be using. In
Larking in the forest
Emma and Mel looking relaxed. I'm panicking as my camerca was about to drop 100ft into the foresty abyss. Luckily i saved it in time actual fact it's more or less a conservation project, as although they do errect massive metal towers and walkways through the forest, they also do lots of conservation work with animals, humming birds, insects, frogs..all that jazz (thats what the leaflet says anyway).
Our tour was indeed fantastic. 14 zip lines, wizzing through the tree tops, amazing views and breathtaking action. It's not so often you get to see above rainforest at close quarters. Included also was a Tarzan style swing which dropped you 20 or so meters from the tree tops down into the undergrowth. Much fun. Great times. Highly reccomended.
Afterwards we hadn't actually booked into doing the canopy walkways (a sedate version of the zip lines where you walk over a series of bridges highly strung above the trees) but after some nice talking to the chap on the gate, he let us in anyway. So we spent the next couple of hours idly wandering through all kinds of greens (so many colours of green), seeing insects galore, birds, butterflies, sadly no exotic animals, but still plenty.
Twas all jolly good fun and certainly as good as you'd imagine such a thing to be.
But also it left one rather tired, and so the afternoon deteriorated into a guitar playing session on the porch back at our hostel.
I suppose this also will be the goodbye CR blog, as tommorow I get a flight in the afternoon to the good old US of A. The next blog will be from the familiar surroundings of my relatives house in San Francisco. So all in all, 5 days in Costa Rica was in some ways enough (very expensive and highly like America in nature, with more greenery), but i must admit i have got a fondness and i'm glad i came. The people have all been very freindly and talk with a mild Carribean accent which i like. The scenery is othout question stunning. It has a paper called 'Good Times'. And, they have beans which approximate to the Baked Beans of blighty. I may come back one day, who knows? But i do give CR the thumbs up.
Sorry about the lack of photos of late, not so easy at the moment. Seems to have stopped you all posting any comments. Lazy bunch.
marc
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mum and Dad
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18 days,18hrs,40mins,and 25secs
Thats how long until you touch down at heathrow! wer'e off to do a bit of wind surfing in Fuerteventura.See you at the airport. Take care, and lots of love.