After my relaxing time on the Caribbean cost it was time for some action again. I took the bus to a small village in the highlands of Costa Rica called Monteverde. Yes that´s almost on the other side of Costa Rica. Getting there was pretty easy but took about 10 hours.
In the bus I met two German guys and together we checked in at Pension Santa Elena in the center of the town. Great hostel - good atmosphere, good and very helpful staff, good common area and okay dorms.
And the main thing to do here in Monteverde is Canopy! There are five companies offering zip line tours through the beautiful cloud forest in the area. The guy from the hostel recommended us Selvatura - a company not far away from Monteverde offering a packet deal: 50 US dollars for a Canopy tour and a TreeTop Walk. Also includes free transportation from the hostel and back.
The pickup was at eight in the morning, and not only for us three but in total 9 people from our hostel signed up. We all got our equipment we needed and started the Canopy tour together. The tour consists of 18 platforms and 15 cables - the longest one was 1.2 km long!! Yes 1200 meters! Unfortunately you were not able to do the longest one alone because you needed more speed, so we were hooked up in pairs. Luckily I went in front - not only for the perfect view, but also to be able to shoot a nice video!
The whole Canopy tour was incredible! Some of the lines were pretty short - just to get from one tree to the other - and some lines were pretty fast. All together it was a good circuit.
After the adrenaline rush we went for the TreeTop Walk - a 3 kilometer long walk through the cloud forest crossing eight bridges from various lengths - ranging between 50 meters to 170 meters - and altitudes - ranging between 12 meters to 60 meters high! From each bridge you had a nice view on the forest and the wildlife. We were able to spot some monkeys and huge spiders.
It had been a really nice day and the money was well spent. More photos here!
19 September 2009 | Costa Rica
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