Ziplining, Night Hike, Monteverde

Yesterday we went zip lining! It was incredibly fun. It had 13 different zip lines, including one that was the longest zipline in Latin America. It was amazing zipping high over the rainforest (like hundreds of feet high? it was crazy) in “superman” pose (where you’re on your stomach instead of sitting). We were having a blast. Taylor and I were in a group with a bunch of young people from Germany. The final zipline thing was called the “Tarzan swing”, and it was wild. I guess kind of like bungee jumping. It tripped out my brain because I jumped from this very tall platform, and I had expected the tension in the ropes to catch me way sooner than it did! So my body was like “YOU’RE ABOUT TO SMASH INTO THE EARTH AND DIE!” . But before I hit the ground it caught me and swung me back and forth and back and forth. I really enjoyed it. Some people took some coaxing to jump and some opted out of the tarzan jump. But, I’d really recommend it :) . They repeated several times its not for people with back or neck problems of any kind. My back actually felt super tweaked beforehand already so I’m like well maybe the jump will just snap my spine into place (haha).

After the zip line we went to the little natural foods store across the road. As we walked inside, the young man who worked as a barista at the cafe next to the store ran out and asked if any of us had left sunglasses there earlier (We had stopped by in the morning for coffee). Sure enough, I had forgotten my ray ban sunglasses there on the counter. What a nerd. That was so nice of him to hold them for me.

We got home and had some wine and good conversations. I slept very hard last night, the most sleep I’ve gotten in days.

This morning we hung around the airbnb, made breakfast and enjoyed the nature that surrounds us here. Beautiful birds would often land in the trees outside the front deck, and we also saw some agouti . They were fat and cute.

Then we went for a walk down the road to try to visit the bat cave, but it was closed until 3pm. We decided to go to town for lunch and to maybe find me a SIM card. Unfortunately my phone was having trouble accepting the SIM card (not sure why, my iPhone is unlocked) so I couldn’t get it :(. It’s okay though, it’s kind of nice not being able to go on my phone as much (I get some service through Verizon travel pass, but it’s kind of expensive and the service is so spotty).

We had lunch at a restaurant with a huge tree growing through it. We went back to a tour booking place and booked a night hike tour for this evening at 6pm. We went back to the airbnb and rested up for a couple hours until it was time to walk down to the restaurant and wait for the van that was to transport us to the night hike location.

“What nationality do you bet is in the tour van tonight? How about the person who wins get something?” I asked Taylor.

“Okay!” she said

“I bet…Germans! There have been a ton of Germans everywhere so far,” I said.

Taylor thought for a moment.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say people from Spain. I know we haven’t met anyone yet from Spain here.”

We were standing in front of the restaurant. And the minutes began to pass. Soon it was 6:15….6:25…6:40. No van arrived for us! We had seen a sign for a place across the street that mentions “night hikes” so we decided to walk there and see if we could sign up for one. We kept walking, and walking…down a street. Made friends with some cute dogs. But did not find the place advertising night hikes. So we walked back up and decided to try to find the place ourselves and drive ourselves there (it’s just easier and more fun to get picked up though because you can meet other travelers too!). We found the tour company, and were able to arrange for them to come pick us up in only a few minutes!!

So we missed two different night hikes already! But finally were on our way to one. The thought crossed my mind that maybe the other two tours didn’t work out for a reason. Maybe on this tour we will be able to see a lot more animals, and the universe or something was just setting it up for us to make sure we got the best experience.

The driver spotted an armadillo on the road, what a cute little guy he was. After 15 minutes we arrived at the night hike location and joined the small group that was waiting for us. It was all women, except for the guide! Maybe 7 of us? We each got a flashlight and were instructed to never shine it in the trees, it’s only for our feet and to see where we are walking.

The trail was muddy and slippery, but luckily it had stopped raining several hours earlier. We trudged down the trail after the guide, and just a minute or two later he got really excited and said “Ladies!!! Quickly!!! Follow me! Move fast!” and he started running up the trail (hahahaha). We all started running after him, it felt so thrilling to be running up the muddy trail after him not even knowing what kind of animal he was going to show us- it must be something really good!

We saw another tour group stopped and looking up at a tree. I squinted my eyes to try to see if I could see what it was, but couldn’t see anything. We stood there for a minute, and we still didn’t know what we were going to see as the other group was quiet and the guide like wanted to keep it a surprise until we saw it? haha.

Eventually the other tour group moved and moved into their place. “See there!” said the tour guide, while he pointed his flashlight up into the tree. “Do you see it?” he asked.

I couldn’t see anything still, so I moved a little further up the side of the trail, grabbed a banana stalk for support and awkwardly stumbled into the tour guide lol. Finally I could see something. It was a big fat porcupine, up in the tree! I didn’t know porcupines climbed trees…he explained after that this species of porcupines only stays in the trees. Pretty neat.

We continued on, and spotted several smaller creatures and insects. A frog, a female violet sabrewing hummingbird sleeping. A tarantula whose home was inside a small hole in a tree. I thought the hike was coming to a close, but then we saw a super poisonous pit viper snake wrapped around the base of a tree.

The guide said it was incredibly rare to spot that snake, first because there aren’t that many in Monteverde because it’s too cold for them, and second because they are almost always in the tops of trees.

We had noticed that the guide had some sort of ear piece in, in which he received any hot tips about animal spotting from other tour guides. He got some news and had us quickly chase him again. We were all high on the dopamine rush of treating it like a fun game…

The guide stopped us at a point next to another group who had a very strong light shining into a humongous tree. I knew with all the fuss it must have been something really good. We waited a few minutes, and then finally we saw it. A sloth!!!! He was hard to spot, as he wasn’t hanging or anything, but was high up in a tree laying on a wide branch. We were marveling at the sloth, when another animal climbed through the branches right above the sloth. What was that?!

“Oooo, ooooo!!!!!! Do you see, do you see? It’s an o-lingo!” he exclaimed.

I had no idea what that was but it looked like a long cat, lemur-ish type of creature. He pulled out his guide book and showed us a picture of one. It was so cute!!

He turned and said “You know, we are very lucky tonight. Tonight is the first time in maybe two months anyone has spotted a sloth on a tour!”

Wow! My earlier premonition was correct!!!

We finished the tour and were directed to hop into a full van that would be our ride home.

And guess where all of passengers were from?!

They were. group traveling together from Spain. Taylor’s manifestation was on point LOL.