Santa Elena (Monteverde), Costa Rica

Driving to Monteverde from the luscious coast was is a little weird since all our lives we’ve been bombarded by little green red eyed frog advertisements for Costa Rica, so naturally we expected lush green scenery. Although there are abundant forests, it turns out most of the midlands are dusty and dry like a long California drought.

Monteverde is the zip line capital of Central America, so of course, we looked for the most death defying tour operator and headed for the longest zip line in Latin America (1590 meters flying like superman) and the biggest Tarzan swing in Monteverde. It was an exciting day packed with adrenalin that we’ve tried to highlight in this short video:

The forests here include a type of parasite Strangler Fig Tree that start growing from a seed dropped on top of a host tree by a bird. The Strangler Fig grows down the trunk of the host tree using the host tree for nutrients and eventually suffocating out the host tree. In this particular case, the original host tree had completely dissolved away leaving a 130 foot natural spiral staircase up to the canopy.

This made for an easy climb all the way to the top where we could watch a Toucan going in and out of his nest!

As we were walking passed a few guides in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, we over heard one guide say cheerfully “I’ve never seen so many Quetzels at one time!” After they walked off we investigated the area and actually found one! We were so excited to end the game of ‘where’s waldo’ for what seemed like ages of chasing chirping birds through the forest!

Another of our favorite adventures was exploring the forest at night. We saw sleeping birds, and all sorts of nocturnal creatures including poisonous snakes and tarantulas!