I nearly voted Nicaragua as my favourite place until I got to Costa Rica-and now I can't decide. We didn't get off to a great start, however, with the worst border crossing we had had yet. It was certainly no Honduras-Nicaragua where we just sat on the bus and Ernesto got (i.e. paid) one of the officials to get on and look at our photos while we sat in the air con. It was certainly no Guatemala-Honduras where we were the only people crossing. No-this was full blown queuing, buses, trucks and people everywhere. And it was hot. Damn hot. We had to carry our gear for about 600m and then stand in a cattle grid queue wearing out packs for about 30 mins. As we all currently look like overweight and retired No Longer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with day packs on the front and large backpacks on the back we were absolutely dripping in sweat. Even my stomach was sweating which is something I've not experienced before. They were very serious-we had to provide proof that we had a mode of exit and they x-rayed our bags. However-the two dudes on the x-ray machine were so busy laughing at my sweat soaked t-shirt (two round boobs and a weird stomach shape) that they didn't even look at the image on the screen. It's reassuring to know that people enjoy laughing at me all over the world..... However all was forgiven when we reached the Costa Rican side to find our new bus drivers name was Don El Taco. That's right- Mr Taco. That is almost my perfect man aside from the fact that he looked a little like a small characature of a Mexican Gnome crossed with my Uncle Simon (sorry Uncle Simon). Despite spending at least 63% of the time on his mobile phone he got us to our destination in one piece...including a contraversial stop for lunch at Burger King (not sanctioned by Intrepid).
Our tour leader Ernesto in a post Whopper Coma.
This was no mean feat as the road to Monteverde is not paved for the last 90 mins and is laced with potholes. The landscape changed dramatically as we went from the rolling fields of Nicaragua to the dense forested hills of Costa Rica. We drove up and up and were soon ensconced in a bank of mist and Mr Taco informed me between phone calls with his wife and brother that we were now entering the famous cloud forested areas.
We arrived in Monteverde and found it to be lush and cool (hooray!!). Monteverde was settled by a group of Quakers in the 1950's who fled America to escape persecution from refusal to participate in the Korean War. They set up Dairy Farms and most importantly areas of conservation to protect the Cloud Forest. There is even a Friends School in Monteverde but I didn't get round to checking it out. There are heaps of things to do in Monteverde and we were met at our hotel by a local tour guide who gave us all our options. I went with a night hike that night- I'd heard that I could see tarantulas bigger than my hand, a hike in the Cloud Forest to try to find the elusive Quetzal (national bird of Guatemala weirdly more easy to find in Costa Rica), and controversially Ziplinning. Now-most of you know that I'm pathologically terrified of heights, I can't even walk on the staircase from Cookie to the Rooftop bar so choosing Ziplinning was potentially going to be the worst afternoon of my life. However- I felt I would probably regret it if I didn't at least give it a crack as this area is famous for Ziplinning.
Our tour operator suggested the night hike the night we arrived as it wasn't raining and despite being exhausted myself and two others chose to go. I'm so glad we did as it absolutely pissed down the next night and the other five had to cancel and we had an awesome time! Our guide was Danilo and he was fantastic! He asked us what we hoped to see and I wanted a tarantula, Mario a snake and Kath a sloth. Two minutes in we found a sloth with a baby. F'ing A! It was still light enough that we could see it properly as it was right up a tree. Apparently they only come down once a week to wee and poo. He then took us to the 'Tarantula Place' where he climbed up and stuck a stick in a hole which annoyed one enough to come out. It was huge-but he said small as it was a female. I would hate to come across a male in the open. We were lucky to have gone there early as Danilo reported later that some of the other guides couldn't get her to come out. Danilo: 1, other guides: 0. We then saw some possum like things, something that looked like a cross between a monkey and a possum, birds, bats and heaps of insects. We were on the hunt for a snake when Danilo spotted an Armadillo. He got on the radio to inform the other guides that we had found one. It ran off but Danilo was on the trail, we raced up the hill in the opposite direction as Danilo said he knew where it would come out. We got up there and it ran out up to Mario's foot and then off again. We got some awesome video footage as Danilo said video at night was better. The other groups did not manage to get as close. Danilo: 2, other guides: 0. We failed to find a snake but Danilo said we would have another crack in the morning as he was going to be our guide then.
We had chosen on recommendation from our tour operator to go to the Curi-Cancha reserve which is smaller than the Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve but she said it was better as there are less people and thus more likely to see wildlife. Mario, Kath, Annie and I set off and within 5 minutes found the most amazing Toucan! Danilo was quick enough to get the telescope set up so we could see its wonderful beak close up but not quick enough to take photos. We saw Monkeys, Bell Birds, Hummingbirds, Agiotes (weird rabbit/rat things) but no Quetzal... We walked for two and a half hours while Danilo mimicked the call of the Quetzal. I had a crack but just ended up sounded like an Asthmatic Rooster. We were just about at the end when Danilo said he would take us on a path only open if you go with a guide if we wanted one last crack at seeing a Quetzal and luckily we agreed as that is where we found them. Danilo was whistling when one of them replied. We couldn't believe it when he spotted the female. They are about the size of a pigeon and have irredecent feathers and the males have a 50-80cm tail. I have absolutely no idea how he spotted it as I could only just see it without the telescope. The male was spotted two minutes later and I don't think I've ever been so excited about seeing a bird before (Fern-you would have been so proud!!). We took a heap of photos and Danilo called his mate who had an American with him who had travelled to Costa Rica just to see the Quetzal-luckily they arrived just in time for him to see it before it flew away.
It was a great start to our day. We headed back to the hotel in high spirits until I remembered Ziplinning was next....
There was a group of 7 of us Ziplinning so I assumed safety in numbers. We were picked up and headed to the site collecting two Russian brothers on the way (they actually were brothers-not brothers in the homeboy sense). I was getting more and more nervous but trying not to show it as I had made a pact with Annie who is also frightened of heights to do it. We got geared up by someone who looked like he was about 12 and were then given our safety briefing. Was not feeling reassured. I was informed that after the first 3 of nine zip lines it was impossible to return so would have to make my decision about continuing before then. We climbed the tree, got clipped on and we forced the Russian brothers to go first-just to make sure the lines were tight. I then decided I really didn't like standing on the gridded mesh platform halfway up a tree so I 'manned up', clenched my sphincter, closed my eyes and went for it. Embarrassingly this one was only about ten meters long but I'm proud to say I survived and there was about 47% of me that enjoyed it! By the third one I was feeling warmed up and starting to enjoy myself as long as I didn't look down while on the platform. That was until I had to go over the suspension bridge and then was dropped off the edge of the platform at speed on a rope. I did not conduct myself like a lady at that point and yelled am exuberant f-bomb right in the face of the dude who looked like he was 12. Sorry. I decided to plow on and the next couple were fine. Actually all was going well until the second longest one that goes for nearly a minute and is about 150m above the canopy when as I was going across a storm erupted and I hit a wall of rain. I couldn't see anything, which was probably a good thing really, but it meant I hit the end without breaking and nearly did a full 360. I noticed a wire about 50m above the one we had gone on and was informed that was the next one but we would have to hike 15-20 minutes to get to it. The rain got worse and by the time we arrived there was lightning which meant we had to move away from the line and wait. We waited 20 minutes and finally we could go. It was still pelting with rain but this was the 'superman' zip line where you are attached by your back and go face first without holding on like superman. Or in my case like a bullet (damn my big bum!). Luckily it meant you could put your face down and not get pelted by rain. It also meant you could see exactly how high you were. Actually-I really enjoyed this one and it is the longest zipline in Central America (1590m), is 200m above the canopy and takes 1.5 minutes to cross. We then had another superman pose-this time with our arms out like a bird and then it was time for the Tarzan swing. This involved jumping off a platform and swinging 40m into the Forrest. I decided that I had gone this far so was going to do it but would probably need to be pushed off the platform. One of the guides informed me it would be his pleasure to push me off. Cheeky bugger. Unfortunately the storm kicked off again and we were told we had to wait. By this time we were saturated, cold and the adrenalin had worn off. 15 mins before cut off time we decided to give up as the storm was not abating and two members of our party had blue lips. We got a discount on a cd of photos of us crossing the ziplines so you can enjoy those at a later date.
The most amazing hot shower gave me a burst of energy that despite my 6am start and having spent at least 69% of the day in abject terror I went salsa dancing until 1am. Result!
(Looking slightly wild in the eyes)
I learnt two valuable life lessons that day:
1) sometimes you just have to give things a red hot go-you never know, you just might enjoy yourself.
2) I'm never, and I mean never, going to look good in a helmet.
Next stop La Fortuna-for more action packed Cost Rican adventures.
