From La Fortuna we drove around Lake Arenal to the cloud forests of the Monteverde area. The drive itself had some beautiful views of the countryside.
Along the way, we stopped at a café and souvenir shop and in talking with them about where we were headed, they suggested we stop at the Viento Fresco waterfalls.
Viento Fresco Waterfalls
As we learned in Costa Rica, everything has a price. The signs directing us to the Viento Fresco waterfall took us to this building that was more like a little soda (mini-restaurant) rather than any type of official entrance. However, off to the side there was a room that sold tickets and gave you a map. It was a little weird in that this felt like more of a private establishment than anything official, but there was a local there also buying tickets (at 1/5th the cost they charge foreigners). Since we were already there we decided we might as well go and see the waterfalls. It was a couple kilometers drive down a bumpy, narrow road. It was quite an adventure to get in and out.
There were a number of waterfalls that you could walk to. We got to all but the last one as it started to rain harder and part of the path seemed to be washed out by the river.
We could see the last one from an overlook but just to show the contrast of how quickly the clouds moved in and out, these two pictures were taken about 5 minutes apart.
We saw our first pair of wild toucans during this hike.
There was a covered bench along the trail which we stopped at during one of the heaviest times of the rain fall. While we waited out the rain, it was time to bust out the chocolate that Grandma had given us in Colombia. Thanks Grandma!
Refugio Night Hike
One recommendation for visitors to the area is to go on a guided night hike as this provides a different and unique way of seeing some wildlife. We had a great guide and got to see quite a few things that we would never have found on our own.
This was a sloth way high in a tree and much harder to see than the ones we saw in Santa Cruz, but cool to see nonetheless. My sister and her family really wanted to see one so it was fun to experience that with them.
Selvatura Canopy Tour
This was the tour that Annika was really looking forward to since she was too short to participate in Julia’s 40th birthday ziplining party. Selvatura contains 13 ziplines through the trees and canopy with the longest one being 1 km long. It lived up to the expectations and everyone had a lot of fun and the scenery was amazing as well.
Geared up and ready to go!
Lined up for the first zip line.
We of course have a ton of pictures from this excursion but that only partially captures it. This video is of the 2nd longest run at 665m and was one of the tandem runs where two people went together so that there was enough weight to carry you the whole length. This run was by Marika and Julia with Marika manning the camera in front. The video is a bit long but shows pretty well what it was like.
And here, for brevities sake, is just the start of 1km double run for all of us:
Just before the last run, there was an option to do the Tarzan swing which we all decided to do.
Monteverde Cloud Forest Park
Our last adventure together was to visit the cloud forest. We opted to not take a guided tour this time but still got to see a number of birds and insects along the way in spite of the rain. Our only disappointment is that we didn’t see a quetzal bird which are known to visit this park.
We had learned about the ficus tree from some of our other tours, but saw great examples of them on our self guided tour here as well. They are unique in that they are pollinated only by one specific wasp and then seeded by bats or birds dropping the fig seeds on the top of a “host” tree. The ficus then grows from the top down, sending down roots that surround and eventually kill the host tree. If the host tree is strong enough, the ficus grows large enough to stand on its own and eventually with time if the host decays, there is a hollow center to the ficus tree. If the host isn’t strong enough to support the ficus until it can stand on its own, they often collapse. The picture on the right shows a collapsed ficus surrounding its host tree.
Family
It has been a blessing for us to have family join us for part of the last couple of weeks. To be able to explore God’s amazing creation together, to experience new foods and cultures, and to just spend time together has been a real joy.
