Monteverde

Our first port of call in Costa Rica was Monteverde. Only minutes after being in the town of Santa Elena we felt the totally different vibe that would be through out the country compared to the previous Central American countries we had visited. Costa Rica can be pretty damn expensive compared to it's neighbouring countries which can be pretty tough on the backpacking circuit and seems to take a lot of people by surprise. But you know, I think we should all stop complaining about it as comparatively Costa Rica also has a generally higher standard of living, so lets stop wishing people were poorer so we could have cheaper holidays. There's also perks like a lot nicer public buses (none of those Chicken Buses down here) and you can drink the water. YOU CAN DRINK THE WATER!

View from the Bus

The day we got to Monteverde we signed up for a guided night tour to check out some of the local wildlife. Since we got to Mexico we were expecting to see animals everywhere, but the image in our heads didn't quite match what we were seeing. You go on a three day hike you think you're going to see more than some birds and a cow! Costa Rica is making up for that, the wildlife here really is amazing, just how everyone pictures it.

On our slightly intense night tour (guide was constantly telling us to run to keep up with him) we saw our very first sloth! He was sleeping (of course) and literally swinging in the breeze. We also saw a few kinkajous (like a cross between a cat and a monkey), a green eyed frog, two types of toucans, a green viper and an orange kneed tarantula.

Two Toed Sloth (I like to call them Piggy Sloths)

Emerald Toucanet asleep

Green Viper - this is the snakes attack position our guide tells us and he leads us closer to take some photos

Orange Kneed Tarantula 

Day 2 was the Extremo Canopy tour. I've done some zip-lining before but I think this might be the best. The views were awesome and there was some unexpected adrenaline rushes.

This guy was hanging out outside the Canopy Tour office

Some of the awesome views during the ziplines

This canopy tour included more than just some zip-lining, there was also repelling, the superman (where you're attached to the line so you can fly through the air like superman) and the Tarzan Swing. The Tarzan Swing may be one of the scariest things I've ever done and hearing everyone's screams while you're lining up for your turn definitely didn't help! I'll let this video explain what it is. 

Day 3 we headed to the Monteverde Cloud Forest to see if we could spot some more animals. Much to our disappointment we spent about 4 hours trudging around and didn't see much at all. But what can you expect when there's hundreds of visitors all walking around the same paths? About 2 minutes after we got into the park we saw a Coati (or nose bears as we've been calling them) running across the paved area in front of the restaurant. When we later came back to that area for a break we saw two of them running around. I have a theory they're trained to hang around the front to get you excited before 4 hours of seeing nothing. 

But on the bright side the forest itself was pretty awesome, although I can't say much for the views - being in a cloud and all. If you ever make it here I wish you good luck with your animal spotting, some people do get lucky. 

The Coati who greeted us at the gate

What it looks like to be in a Cloud! This is actually the look out!

The hostel that we stayed at advertised having their own sloth that visits regularly so every day we would walk a little down the street to search the trees where we were told he hung out. Eventually on our last day we spotted him (only because I saw a huge group of tourists taking photos of something from our room).

The Local Sloth

We left Monteverde looking forward to the many more animal encounters we would be having around the country. 

Pura Vida