After another leisurely and scrumptious breakfast of tropical fruit, eggs, fried plantains, delicious coffee and … and … we went on a tour of the Hanging Bridges across the jungle in the cloud forest of Monteverde. In spite of the fact that the bridges swayed a little, they felt quite safe and granted us a gorgeous view of the huge trees, luscious foliage, beautiful flowers as well as of the many different types of birds and a bunch of creepy crawlers. Like all our guides on these tours, this young lady was an absolute expert on hundreds of names of birds, plants, and animals. To be honest, most of the names went in one ear and out the other, but that was okay. The visual experience was very impressive.
After the leisurely and informative walk across the bridges, we were off to the adventure of the day–Zip-lining over the jungle. When I first realized what we got ourselves into, I thought of an old German saying: “Alter schützt vor Torheit nicht.” Roughly translated it means: “Old age does not protect you from foolishness.” After a few moments of rapid heartbeat, however, we started to enjoy that thrilling adventure!
The photo above was taken after we got a good look at what was going to happen, but before we tried it out. Do you see our forced smiles? But here we go! Pura Vida!
Above is the map of the seven cables we rode. What a thrilling adventure it was.
Yes, we survived. Pura Vida!
After relaxing for a while in our beautiful hotel, we had another adventure planned. We went to visit a bat sanctuary, where we could admire those amazing animals that are so important for our own survival. Without them, we’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects. Bats are valuable for many reasons. The sanctuary was inside and fairly dark–bats are of course nocturnal animals–and there was no flash allowed. We didn’t want to disturb them, so we didn’t take any photos. But here is a chart that shows the wide variety of bats as well as a picture of two bats that we saw on one of the tours we took later.
Below, another look at this gorgeous and peaceful environment of Monteverde.
The following day we left Monteverde and were driven to our last stop, the town of Manuel Antonio at the Pacific Coast, Stay tune for more of Pura Vida.
