Monteverde - Classic Costa Rica

We stayed for 2 nights in Monteverde Heliconia Hotel . which as the blog title suggests, is classic Costa Rica (mountain, rain forest - actually cloud forest in the case of Monteverde, ziplining, animals, plants, insects).  Monteverde is not far away from Arenal where we spent our first 3 nights, but it felt completely different.  Since you are at 1500m high elevation, you are in a little bit cooler (not cold but cooler) and damper climate.

In Arenal, waking up to the view of the volcano mesmerized us and we were sad to leave it.    

The mountains of Monteverde



But in Monteverde, our hotel was on the mountain.   We woke up every morning to a beautiful rainbow created from the mist of the cloud forest surrounding us and the sun rising behind us.

 

Watching the sunset from our hotel room.





And every night, we viewed the sunset...it doesn't get any better than that!








The mist of the cloud forest

 There are canopy tours in Monteverde including a hanging bridges tour, however, since we had already done it in the Arenal area we chose to zipline!  We also saw some pretty neat animal preserves - bats, butterflies, frogs.  And on our first night, we decided to take a night walk through the forest, when the nocturnal animals and insects come to life!!



Bat interpretation centre (before entering the bat cave)

Starting our Night Walk

                                



      Creepy night crawlers!

 

A tarantula coming out of its nest

We also saw sloths way up in the trees, but it was too dark to take their pictures.

Leaf Cutter ants taking leaves to their nest

Not a leaf but an leaf insect

Ziplining was quite an adventure!  Long crossings over the canopy, rappelling, Tarzan Jump and "Super Man".  To get an idea, check out their website for the Extreme Canopy Adventure Tour here http://www.aventuracanopytour.com/canopy-tour

The Superman

The Tarzan Swing



The Hammock Bridge


















Why was there a rainbow every morning?  Why are we wearing coats for ziplining?  Intense heat at the equator puts air into motion. These winds blow with considerable force from December to April (we were there end of April) and are responsible for carrying moisture, in the form of mist, to the slopes of the mountain range. These mists sustain the magnificent cloud forest ecosystem around Monteverde.  The average temperatures can be 8 or 9 degrees celsius less than at lower elevations and 10+ degrees less than the temperature on the coasts.

More on Monteverde to come...