Monteverde

The bus ride from San Pedro to Monteverde was crazy to say the least. Leaving our house at 5:00AM on Saturday, we reached the bus station around 6:00AM and boarded. Although we had purchased 26 seats, only 24 of us had seats and two others had to stand or sit in the aisle (for several hours). Also, many other

people had to stand for the entire ride.

The bus itself was about the size of a charter bus, which was quite nice until we got to the narrow mountain roads. By narrow, I mean not large enough to accommodate two-way traffic, though it did. By mountain, I mean frequent drops of several hundred to a thousand feet or so just off the road. By road, I mean sharply winding and steeply inclined gravel. (Did the bus start slipping backwards once? Yes). Oncoming traffic was managed on a case-by-case basis. The worst scenario was when another charter

bus-sized vehicle came from the other direction. Our bus was noticeably tilted toward falling off the mountainside as we squeezed around the corner and past the other bus.

This was tolerable for me until the people on the bus who actually lived in the area grew anxious about the situation, apparently signifying that we were closer than acceptable to rolling over. When our pass was complete, people began applauding for the driver. In any case, the terrain we saw from the bus was incredible.

At Monteverde, we went to the rain forest (sometimes called a cloudforest) to view wildlife. Andrew, Brandon, and I split off to go ahead of the rest of the group out of concern that the noise of a large group would scare away the animals. Almost right away, we saw a large, exotic-looking bird with a black body, long neck, and blue head. Later, we saw some pigeon-like birds that primarily walked on the ground, as well as a giant blue ant. Sightings from other groups included more birds, big insects, and a monkey. For all of us, the vegetation was incredibly diverse and dense (one small tree was documented to be the host of over 70 kinds of plants). We saw different plants everywhere we looked. Interestingly, some portions of our walking trail were part of the continental divide. Of course, before we left it began to rain and pour.

In Monteverde, a small, tourist town, many stray dogs live in front of the shops, some of which befriended us immediately. They followed us from place to place, waiting outside stores and restaurants for us to come back out. At the hotel late Saturday night, I was startled on the second floor by a large, beautiful white dog which had come up the stairs and lied down in front of the door of a friend's room. We spoiled it with attention, and then it chilled with me for a couple hours as I enjoyed some fresh air and quiet time out on the balcony. Apparently, stray dogs in these areas are basically everyone's pet, being fed and cared for by everyone. All of the dogs we met were well-adjusted and extremely friendly, so I'm inclined to believe that they really are well cared for.

Our zip-line tour of the rainforest canopy the next day consisted of 13 lines through the jungle and a Tarzan-style “Superman” swing. Although I did some zip-lines last time I was in Costa Rica, it was just as cool the second time, and at this location the clouds in the rainforest really brought out the epicness of the jungle.  The last, highest, and fastest zipline, which was steeply inclined for speed and funness, had to be ridden by two people at once to avoid spinning around in the harnesses. Several people in my group engineered clever ways of attaching their cameras to their helmets or other areas (with only one camera-casualty), so Andrew got a great video of our last zipline. As I jumped off the platform of the Superman Swing, I was uncomfortable with the initial slack I felt in the rope (Am I attached?), since this was the free-fall  portion. Soon, however, I became quite certain that the slack was all gone and the ropes were, in fact, holding me up as I swung over some trees and vegetation.

Our return busride (about four hours) was uneventful, though filled with incredible landscapes and scenery. I took about a 45 minute turn standing, which was actually more comfortable than sitting, though also more demanding. 

Time for another week of class!