Adventures in Monteverde- Home of the Cloud Forest

 This is Arenal volcano which we drove around to get up into Monteverde.  Unfortunately a trip that was supposed to take 3 hours turned into 7.5 hours when a bridge we needed to cross was washed away so we had to backtrack and then go back around the other way.  The road system here is a lot different from the United States and the road up to Monteverde is gravel for about 45 minutes going up the mountain.  The road has no guardrails but thankfully we had an experienced driver who kept us safe even with wet conditions!

Monteverde is known as the cloud forest for its 100% humidity all the time and the 150-180 inches of rain that it receives every year.  The forest here is majestic and absolutely beautiful, home to thousands of plants and insects.  Below is pictures and description of this beautiful forest and the activities I participated in while there.

 This is one of the trees I found when we arrived into Monteverde.  The picture is so beautiful with the fog which is what makes the cloud forest so unique.  This place reminds me of the temperate rain forest that I visited last summer.  In the park we visited there are over 800 different tree species and of that eleven different oak species and over 100 different avocado species.  At the park they only use 3% of the area for trails and for people to visit which leaves 97% of the forest untouched except for research. 

 In the evening we traveled into the town to do some looking around and we found this place.  It is a tree house bar and restaurant.  You climb up the spiral stair case through the tree and end up in a tree house.  It is actually a fig tree and looked beautiful with the rain and fog drifting through it.

This is a male bell bird that we found on our morning hike through the forest.  He has a very interesting face in which it looks like he has a worm hanging over his mouth like a moustache.
 

This is a Quetzal which Monteverde is known for although we were told it is very rare and usually not seen by many visitors. 

Can you find him?  This is a walking stick we found while walking on the trail.

This is another beautiful waterfall in Costa Rica which we hiked up to.  The water coming from these falls are so pristine that they can just be drank straight and no filtration in necessary.

Here is a two toed sloth that we found lounging in a tree.

When we finished our morning hike we were able to walk down the road a little bit and visit a beautiful hummingbird garden.  There are so many different hummingbirds that call Monteverde home and at this place they have set out about 25 different feeders that they have to refill about 4 times per day which attracts the hummingbirds for the visitors to see. 

After our walk to the rain forest seeing it from the bottom up we were given the chance of zip lining through the forest canopy.  At first I was very nervous since I am scared of heights but this is Shannon and I before we began the first part of our journey.  Before we could zip line down the mountain we had to get up which we did by taking the Sky Tram which is just like a ski lift up the mountain. 

This is a picture of our group before we began our journey.  It was a lot cooler up in Monteverde so many of us had to pull out our "warmer" clothes underneath all the safety equipment.

This is a picture of me on the practice zip line which was only like 50 feet off the ground so we could get used to the equipment and to make sure we felt comfortable. Below you can see a diagram of the zip line as well as the sky-trek. 

 

This is Ashley and I once we finished our adventure and I am so glad that I faced my fears and did it.  We had a great view from above and was able to see the beautiful forest from above.

After completing our zip-line experience we traveled to EARTH La Flor campus which is in the northwest portion of the country and luckily only about 45 minutes to the beach!

Yesterday on our free day we were able to travel to the beach and we went to Playa Hermosa.  We had a great day at the beach playing in the water and just relaxing. 

Today we received an orientation of EARTH La Flor since we will be here for the week and toured around the farm looking at there many sustainable practices.  The rest of the week we will be here learning about sustainable agriculture and practices before we head to San Jose on Friday night.  It is hard to believe that I have only been here 3 weeks but I will be here until Aug. 8th so I still have plenty of time to explore!