Zip A Dee Doo Da

The trip to Monteverde (MV) was surprisingly simple for travel outside the US (Okay, and I guess Canada). Sub 4 hours, and the van was comfy. The roads up into the mountains were pretty treacherous, but..in this case it seemed adventerous (as compared to similar roads from beach town to beach town which just seem obnoxious).

MV kicks ass! Much colder than the beach (50s at night...and super windy). We got up early this morning to do the SkyTrek & SkyWalk tour. (Saw one sloth on the way). SkyTrek is a group of 11 ziplines through and above the rainforest. You put on a harness, clip onto the cable, hold onto a pulley...and go. The first four or five cables were the shortest (only up to 200 meters or so long) and lowest (60 to 100 feet up). Some of these went over the trees, some carried you through the forest so that you felt as if you were going to run into trees. After these beginner lines we climbed a big tower and got ready for a 450 meter long cable that ran between two mountains 500 feet above the deck! The cable just disappeared into the clouds as your rode it. Another cable was almost half a mile long...and you haul some pretty serious ass on some of them (40 mph?). This was the best part of the trip so far.

After that we did the SkyWalk which is just a hike through the forest. There are several suspension bridges to go over and some are very long and very high! We didn´t see much for wildlife, but the fauna was unbelievable. We´re gonna hike through the MV Reserve with a guide tomorrow and should see lots of animals at that.

After we got back to town (Santa Elena) we visited a insect (well, arthropod) museum with lots of insect, spider, and scorpion, specimans. Then we toured through the terrariums. This some how turned into an exercise of how to let giant insects walk all over your face. I got to hold a huge tarantula. There´s a great picture of a walking stick walking on Erik´s face. Unfortunately I don´t have my camera with me, but I´ll update the pictures soon...so check back.

So long all you working fools!

(updated pictures: note the photo of the people on the zip line...not the highest zip line mind you)

R