October 9th through the 11th I traveled with API to Monteverde, and I have to say, so far it was my favorite trip! Monteverde is beautiful, and the climate is different from San Joaquin. It was a little cooler temperature wise there, and there was a lot more rain. To get there we had to drive through mountainous, windy roads, but to be honest, I slept most of the way! Our hotel, named Hotel Montana Monteverde was incredible!! The rooms were huge and our beds could have fit 2 or 3 people in them. The best part was the bathtub! It was huge and green and absolutely perfect for a bubble bath. Speaking of which, our group of girls did just that later that night.
This may sound odd, but the girls got together in their bathing suits, with a little wine and some candles and hung out in the huge bathtub. Good times eh? Before that though we went to a Serpentario ( like a snake zoo) and took a tour, learning about the different dangerous, deadly snakes in Costa Rica. My brother would have loved this! It was pretty interesting, but the coolest part was when I got to hold a gigantic toad! After holding the toad I held a snake for the first time. What an odd sensation. It was blue, and not very wide, but very long. It wasn't slimy or anything, it reminded me a little of rubber. The weirdest part was when it wrapped itself around my arms and moved all over my shoulder area, smelling me with its tongue. I always thought it would feel gross, but actually it was really neat!
The next day, Saturday, we went to a biological forest reserve/ cloud forest. It was absolutely gorgeous! We got rained on of course, but it was worth it. We hiked around for a few hours to a waterfall, and by the time we came back down my legs were shaky and my calf muscles were burning. Good workout, hiking around. That night we went to a delicious pizza restaurant and watched a soccer game. Sunday was by far my favorite day. Sadly my camera died, so I have to borrow pictures from other people, but that'd ok. Megan got some pretty good videos, which she'll eventually upload onto youtube. You can take a look at these videos, an
d others from my trip at http://www.youtube.com/clarkmeg06
Sunday we took a Canopy Tour, which entailed zip lining and a "Tarzan swing." The first cable was so nerve racking! I had no idea how fast I would be flying down the line, all I knew was to cross my feet, tuck my legs in, right hand behind, left hand in front and to pull down on the cable if I wanted to slow down. It was amazing to fly down the cable with the wind rushing through my face, and feeling so high up in the air above the forest of trees. When I arrived at the other platform I had to laugh because Caitlin informed me that I had mud all over my face, as did she. I guessed that my face probably looked something like gallo pinto, which made our guide laugh. There were 13 zip lines in total, with the last one being 1 mile long. That one we had to do in partners because it required more weight, and I went with the guide named Pocahontas. Literally, that was his name. He was awesome and full of energy, and well..we all decided our 3 guides were all pretty cute :)
The most adrenaline rush of the day though was definitely the Tarzan swing. We stood on a platform that was probably 15 to 20 feet off of the ground, and our guide attached our harness to a rope, which was tied to a super tall tree. Basically we let ourselves fall off the platform and swung back and forth with two of the guides below trying to grab our feet to slow us down to a stop. When it was my turn, Pocahontas helped me into position to "fall" (because we had a rope attached to us to keep us from falling too soon that he had to undo) but instead of letting me go at three he kept hanging onto me for a few seconds afterward. That drove me crazy! I didn't know when he was going to let go and so when he finally did I screamed SO loud!! I'm not a fan of the falling feeling and it definitely was that feeling, but it only lasted for a second, and afterward it just felt like I was on a playground swing (of course much bigger). When they brought me to a stop my body was all shaky because I'd had so many butterflies escape from my stomach at once! So much fun!! Great weekend :) Do check out the videos on youtube!!! They're amusing fosho...
This may sound odd, but the girls got together in their bathing suits, with a little wine and some candles and hung out in the huge bathtub. Good times eh? Before that though we went to a Serpentario ( like a snake zoo) and took a tour, learning about the different dangerous, deadly snakes in Costa Rica. My brother would have loved this! It was pretty interesting, but the coolest part was when I got to hold a gigantic toad! After holding the toad I held a snake for the first time. What an odd sensation. It was blue, and not very wide, but very long. It wasn't slimy or anything, it reminded me a little of rubber. The weirdest part was when it wrapped itself around my arms and moved all over my shoulder area, smelling me with its tongue. I always thought it would feel gross, but actually it was really neat!
The next day, Saturday, we went to a biological forest reserve/ cloud forest. It was absolutely gorgeous! We got rained on of course, but it was worth it. We hiked around for a few hours to a waterfall, and by the time we came back down my legs were shaky and my calf muscles were burning. Good workout, hiking around. That night we went to a delicious pizza restaurant and watched a soccer game. Sunday was by far my favorite day. Sadly my camera died, so I have to borrow pictures from other people, but that'd ok. Megan got some pretty good videos, which she'll eventually upload onto youtube. You can take a look at these videos, an
d others from my trip at http://www.youtube.com/clarkmeg06Sunday we took a Canopy Tour, which entailed zip lining and a "Tarzan swing." The first cable was so nerve racking! I had no idea how fast I would be flying down the line, all I knew was to cross my feet, tuck my legs in, right hand behind, left hand in front and to pull down on the cable if I wanted to slow down. It was amazing to fly down the cable with the wind rushing through my face, and feeling so high up in the air above the forest of trees. When I arrived at the other platform I had to laugh because Caitlin informed me that I had mud all over my face, as did she. I guessed that my face probably looked something like gallo pinto, which made our guide laugh. There were 13 zip lines in total, with the last one being 1 mile long. That one we had to do in partners because it required more weight, and I went with the guide named Pocahontas. Literally, that was his name. He was awesome and full of energy, and well..we all decided our 3 guides were all pretty cute :)
The most adrenaline rush of the day though was definitely the Tarzan swing. We stood on a platform that was probably 15 to 20 feet off of the ground, and our guide attached our harness to a rope, which was tied to a super tall tree. Basically we let ourselves fall off the platform and swung back and forth with two of the guides below trying to grab our feet to slow us down to a stop. When it was my turn, Pocahontas helped me into position to "fall" (because we had a rope attached to us to keep us from falling too soon that he had to undo) but instead of letting me go at three he kept hanging onto me for a few seconds afterward. That drove me crazy! I didn't know when he was going to let go and so when he finally did I screamed SO loud!! I'm not a fan of the falling feeling and it definitely was that feeling, but it only lasted for a second, and afterward it just felt like I was on a playground swing (of course much bigger). When they brought me to a stop my body was all shaky because I'd had so many butterflies escape from my stomach at once! So much fun!! Great weekend :) Do check out the videos on youtube!!! They're amusing fosho...
Sounds incredible Riley! Glad you had so much fun, and I´m jealous that you got to zipline!!
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