Saturday, 26 May 2012

Is it a bird? is it a plane? No, its citygirltravels!

Dionne Warwick: "Do you know the way to San Jose?"


Citygirltravels: " Yes, I do Dionne, but I don´t recommend going there..."


Yes, yes, before you say it I know the lyrics to this song are referring to San Jose, California, but they fit in so aptly with our second destination in Costa Rica - the capital San Jose. 


I had decided to swing by the nations largest city as I thought it may be a good base to set off to other parts of the country from. Whilst it has good transport links (by this I mean road infrastructure as the buses themselves are by far the worst I've experienced thus far in Central America), there really isn't anything else to see or do in the city itself. Being an ugly city also didn't do much for its already waning appeal to me. 


Interestingly since arriving in Costa Rica I've noticed that pretty much every building has the most insane amount of security on it - every building looks like Fort Knox and has razor wire all over it. Something I found a little hard to get our heads around considering Costa Rica is all about Pura Vida and is, according to the Happy Planet Index  meant to be one of the happiest places in the World to live?! Perhaps it is to do with Costa Rica abolishing their military in 1948...


One place I did enjoy visiting in San Jose was a restaurant called Veggie House which as the name suggests only serves vegetarian food. I always find that veggie restaurants pay so much attention to detail when it comes to serving their food. I think this is to distract the fact that you're just eating vegetables and no meat or fish so they have to make up for it with intense flavours and colours in their dishes. Either way the food here was delicious and I highly recommend their veggie wrap.
Presentation is key at Veggie House...
The bad boy veggie wrap! delicious
Leaving San Jose I headed to Monteverde (Spanish for Green Mountain) which is a major ecotourism destination in Costa Rica. The area is best known for its Cloud Forest Nature Reserve which consists of 26,000 acres of tropical rain forest and is home to many species of plants, animals and insects. The forest is characterized by nearly 100% humidity throughout the year and receives four metres of rain each year! Wet stuff. 


The journey to Monteverde was at night and as such the scenery was ethereal as the bus climbed higher into the cloud forest. I half expected to see the cast from the film Lord of the Rings thundering towards me on horseback. 


The weather changed dramatically between Puerto Viejo, where I had originally started on the Caribbean coastline of Costa Rica, to San Jose and Monteverde which are situated inland and at altitude. The temperature dropped easily by 5 or more degrees centigrade and I was suddenly victim to the rainy season. Not that I was complaining mind, it made a refreshing change to feel cool again. 


Monteverde itself, isn't very big but what it lacks in size it makes up for in activities and restaurants. One eaterie I visited was the Treehouse restaurant & café  which as the name suggests is actually built around a tree! Amazeballs. 


Hanging out at the Treehouse
The main activities in Monteverde centre around the Cloud Forest which is what the area is famous for. I decided to do what is known as a Skytram and  Skywalk


The Skytram is a guided tour where you take a tram up to the Continental divide (the mountain range which divides the pacific and Atlantic coast) and look out across the Gulf of Nicoya and at the Arenal volcano. Unfortunately for me the weather was a little drizzly but I still managed to see a sloth in the trees (my first one!) and admire the tropical forest from above. 
Going up in the Skytram
Gulf of Nicoya in the distance
Look closely to the right of the middle of this pic and you´ll see a pair of Sloth eyes staring back at you!
The Skywalk involved venturing into the forest via trails and suspension bridges. All good except I did get a little freaked out by the height and swaying of some of the bridges! Our guide was great and explained all about the forests including the reason why you always see so many Tarzan like vines hanging everywhere - they are actually called sinker roots and they get water from the ground up to the top of the tree which cant access water.


Rainforest!
Suspension bridge
The next day we caught a Jeep taxi (they´re the only vehicles that will get you there) to The Biological Reserve of Monteverde Cloud Forest. Once again I set off on a hike into the jungle, albeit this time with even more rain. The trails were great but due to the weather I had to stop a few times and shelter under the canopy of a tree so as to not get so wet. The wildlife in the forest was amazing, everything from creepy crawlies to exotic birds. One bug we saw was HUGE, literally flying around like it had its own rocket pack on. I've no idea what species it was but it looked straight out of Pixars film A Bugs Life. 
Jurassic Park. OK OK I lie, its the Cloud Forest Nature Reserve - but doesn't it look like the film?!
Once again, as with the Skywalk and the Skytrek, the entrance fee for the Reserve was overpriced. Costa Rica it would seem is true to its name, you have to be rica (rich) to do anything here.


Surprisingly I did manage to find one excursion which was, *shock horror*, free! The Hummingbird Gallery was a park which far outdid the forest not just because it was gratis but because awesomely I could literally feel the flapping of the birds wings whilst they were feeding from the bird tables! The noise of all of their wings flapping was ridiculously loud and like being stood next to an engine. 




Hummingbirds weren't however the most awesome thing about Monteverde. No, I had deliberately chosen to visit this Cloud Forest for another reason: zip lining.


You may recall in an earlier blog that I did a zip line across the Mendoza River in Argentina. I had such a great time (despite getting stuck half way across the ravine) that I was desperate to do it again, this time in the home of zip lining, Costa Rica. 


After much deliberation I chose to go with a company called Monteverde Extremo. Our reason was straightforward: they had a zipline called Superman, where you fly like the Super Hero himself on your front above the forest. 


What I hadn't factored in was that in addition to the Superman cable and the other zip lines (there are twelve in total) there is also a Tarzan Swing (A swing of 30 metres, reaching a height of about 50 metres) and a Rappel (30 metres high)...


Thankfully the day got off to a good start - it was my birthday - so I was ready and raring to go. Alas the weather wasn't feeling the same and it rained pretty much the entire day which meant that most of our vistas were shrouded in cloud (they don't call it Cloud Forest for nothing you know). I didn't mind the lack of vista as it meant I couldn't see how high we were at times and the rain meant I had a valid reason for shutting my eyes : )


My main concern was ensuring I made it across each zip line successfully. After the incident in Mendoza I didn't fancy getting rescued again...


Everything was going swimmingly until I started to slow down on one cable, thankfully I quickly curled my body up into a ball and managed to make it to the end in time. When it came to the Superman cable, the instructors therefore demanded that I did this cable with my arms by my side to ensure I went as fast as possible. Usually you do it with your arms stretched outwards (They should really call this cable Mighty Mouse not Super man in that case...) but as I am so small they were worried my arms would cause drag and slow me down! I wasn't taking any chances so I dutifully obeyed.


The experience of flying was AMAZING albeit massively surreal. Everything below me looked fake, the trees resembled broccoli and the cows looked straight out of a Hornby model railway set. 


With regards to the Monkey Swing and the Rappel, well they went as well as could be expected. I cant say I enjoyed throwing myself voluntarily off the starting stand into a drop of 50 metres but the swing itself was OK once I managed to open my eyes and stop screaming! The Rappel was actually rather fun once I got comfortable and it was great to see the trees to up close. 


Grimaced smile as I head off on one of the zip lines...
I unfortunately didn't get any footage of the Superman Cable and the Monkey Swing but you can check out the Extremo Canopy Tour YouTube videos here to get a feel for what I did!


To reward myself for being brave and also to celebrate my birthday I went for a few drinks at The Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel. It is the first hotel in Monteverde offering treehouse chalets in the cloud forest canopy. 


The staff do not usually let any one other than guests who are staying there drink in the main lodge but after charming my way in they spoilt me rotten with complimentary cake and drinks, and not to mention countless portions of nachos plus two rounds of Happy Birthday sung to me (the second version was a random American one...) by all the guests and the staff! The views were spectacular and service I received (albeit only for drinks & food as I didn't stay the night) was amazing so if you´re looking for somewhere special to visit/stay during your time in Monteverde then Id highly recommend here. The owner Jenn is also the hostess with the mostess and will thoroughly ensure you have a lovely time. 
View from the main lodge - check out the cloud!

1 comment:

  1. love this entry caca sounds like so much fun! xxx

    ReplyDelete

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