Monteverde

June 12

Yesterday we drove three and a half hours to the Monteverde region of Costa Rica in the Puenta Arenas province. We stopped half way at a cute little German bakery and purchased some pastries. Later that afternoon most of our tour members went to a local farm and had the experience of milking cows and making sugar cane candy. A few of us— myself included— decided to stay back at our hostel and later go walking to explore the closest town, Santa Elena. This part of the country is known as the cloud forest because of the higher elevation. It is cooler here so air conditioning is not necessary. The vegetation here looks like it belongs in a North American forest rather than in a tropical country.

Wednesday we went to Monteverde Extremo Park for our zip lining canopy tour. I wish I had brought my camera case on the lanyard so I could have video taped this experience. I really need to learn how to work my go pro! It would have taken amazing video. Eight zip lines of varying lengths up to 300 ft high. Zip lining was exhilarating — the stairs required to reach the zip lines were exhausting! And the harness can get uncomfortable after a while.

Afterwards we went hiking in the Santa Elena cloud forest, and later we planted trees at the Don Juan coffee plantation. We planted a total of seven avocado, damas, and balsa trees. Giving back to his beautiful country by helping with its reforestation. We finished off the evening with a Latin Dance class-- my favorite part of the night! 
                                       

                   

Dance class with Isabelli!

#thisismonteverde