Day 3

First of all let me start off by saying that my keybard is now in English. Just when I was getting used to the Spanish one too. Damn!

It's hard to write about something you did two days ago as most of the stuff seems to role into the next day and before you know it, you have two days to write, but it's really one day, but then you have to write day 4 but not until day 6 because you have to write day 5. Phew!!!

So day 3 started off as we traveled from La Fortuna through Arenal to Monteverde. Monteverde I believe was about 3/4 hrs away. I could be wrong. We have done a ton of traveling.

Of course before we left, for one last time we tried to see Volcano Arenal. Guess what???? Nothing yet again. Oh well, we bought a postcard.

To get to Monteverde we had to travel yet again on a long, winding, twisty road with no guardrails. Wait, actually there was something. If you count barbwire between wooden posts a guradrail. Somehow I don't think that would stop a 1000 ton vehicle from going over the edge. For some reason Costa Ricans have a saying for everything. When I asked about cars going over the edge on our way down from Monteverde, he said that when a vehicle goes over and falls thousands of feet down. It is easier to just through a cross from the point they fell. Nice!

Anyway, we finally reach the top and check into our very cool hotel. Like a ranch with flowers instead of horses.

We have a little lunch and make our way to Selvatura Park. Which is even further up the mountain. Monteverde is known as the cloud forest. Which means exactly what you think. Our reason for being here was to do the Canopy Tour. Ha Ha Liz, you are not going to like this....

We started out by doing the treetop walkways. Which consists of a 2 mile trail that leads to 8 bridges of varying heights and lengths through the cloud forest. I will admit, it took me a few bridges to feel completely comfortable up there. How often can you walk through the clouds above a forest and look down upon it? Lots of heights, scary heights, but really cool. Some of the bridges were really long and of course Catdoggg liked to sway the bridge while we were on it.

In fact there was this Asian guy in front of us and it got to the point toward the end he hated us. Everytime Catdoggg did it, (it was for our own amusement) Mauricio noticed that the Asian dude would grab onto the sides for dear life everytime it happened. He had the ultimate kung fu grip. :) For the first two I think he didn't notice why or how it was happening. Probably thought it was the wind until he turned around and saw three huge smiles and a 5"3" Blonde Haired American walking like Bigfoot.

Anyway, one of the best parts of this trip was our PRIVATE guide. Not only does he speak spanish. I remind him everyday that its great that he learned how to speak Spanish for us. He knows everything there is to know about Costa Rica and the animals, birds, insects, terrain, rivers, lakes, mountains, history, towns, you name it. So along the way through our cloud city tour., (All I could think about was Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back) I was just waiting for Lando Calrissian to introduce me to Darth Vader or better yet Billy Dee Williams offering me some COLT 45!!!! We are very lucky we have him. Otherwise this trip would not have been as cool or easy as it is with him. Plus he's little and I could squash him if I wanted to. Hee Hee Plus he speaks Spanish....

So now on to probably the best part of our trip. Giggity! No, it's not the Atlantis Club Kiki. Although I would like to go. But it is the Zip line tour through the cloud forest. Traversing across cables at blistering speeds, dangling over thousands of feet over, through, in, the cloud forest. With nothing stopping you but our own hands, the forest floor, or hopefully one of the 7 guides before you slam into a tree. I swear Catdoggg was trying to do this.

At first I wasn't too excited to do this, but at the end I think Catdoggg and I would love to work there.

You start off by getting suited up with the harness and gear, clips, safety line and because of our trusty PRIVATE guide a suit. Otherwise we would look like all the other foreigners covered in mud on their normal clothes. It pays to get the inside scoop.

We take another ride a little further up the mountain and get the quick reference guide on how to zip line across 15 lines and one very special surprise. This whole time I am waiting for a fucking T-Rex to jump out and start chasing me. That's what this forest/Costa Rica reminded me of. What was that stupid one? I think the third when the dinasour ate the phone and throughout the movie you suddenley heard the phone ring and then this Big Ass Maneating Dinosaur would jump out. It was quite suspensful until he pooped it out.

Anyway, this one of the sickest, coolest things I have ever done. Zip lining across a forest going through clouds at some very high speeds. Once I got past the fear of falling (which you couldn't) and figuring out how to stop, it was fantastic.

I think when we got to platform 10 was when we had the surprise. They unclipped us, walked us up to a ledge, hooked us to the back, leaned us forward and made us grab the rope. Then you heard,"oh just step out." TARZAN style baby. Swinging through the forest like a Howler Monkey throwing poo... It was fucking cool. Catdoggg was first and I was second and she was like, "Step out, what do you mean step ou aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit ha ha ha Woooooo!" That was her. I saw her face it was funny. Mauricio has our jumps on video. We still haven't seen those yet.

So after that we get back to zipping the final 5 lines. I think the second one in, I reached the platform, one of the guides grabs me, pulls me up to Catdoggg, clips me on, tells me to wrap my legs around her and then pushes us. All before I realize what was going on. We were together foing down the zip line. That was cool. I think it was the second longest line and one of the highest. Man, you have to experience this. We highly recommend it.


This is the website for the place. Once again, it does it no justice.
Not For The Weak Of Heart


I think that somewhere in Catdoggg's bloodline, she has some Japanese in here. Cause we know she has some Italian. Ha Ha. Bad joke... The whole time she basically refused to stop and crashed into the end of every line. She was a total Kamikaze the whole time. God Bless Her... In fact on the last line, remember her and I were 1 and 2, the first guide went down and the other guide on the platform tells her to not stop until the instructer tells her. Well, somehow she figured out how to go really really fast and caught up to the professional zip liner and almost crashed into him before he could unclip himself from the line. Would you expect anything else from her?

So that was pretty much our day. Another long day. Let me tell you that Monteverde is absolutely freezing at nighttime. Reminded me of home, but too cold for our warm weather trip. That's what is amazing about this place. In one place it can be raining, you go a little bit down the road and it's sunny, a little further and you can't see two feet in front of you, and then it gets really cold and now it's extremely hot.

Oh and on the trip to Monteverde I learned that when the guide tells you to follow his instructions, you follow his instructions. Mauricio gave us the history of the coffee bean. We learned that the coffee bean has two shells before you use what we are used to seeing. He pulled over to the side of the road and we got out to pick some beans off a farm. Which I said, "Isn't this illegal?" In his typical way he just looked and said, "Yea." and continued on with his history lesson. They went down one way, I thought I saw another way down and I was completely stopped in my tracks by... BARBWIRE. Oh so fun. Just caught myself in time before I could have really hurt myself. That's when he said, "Usually you follow the guide, That's why I'm the guide." OOPS! Helen Keller would have seen that better than me. I guess I wouldn't have lasted too long in Vietnam.... BRADDOCK come get me.....

Ok thats it for now. I'll try to write about Day 4 later or tomorrow before I follow too far behind.

p.s. Monteverde had some of the best pizza I have had in a while. Go figure....