Ziplining, tarzan swing and hummingbirds

We arrived in Monteverde and after a quick haggle at the bus stop to get some very cheap accomodation in the centre of town heard about all the cool things we could do. Ziplining, bunjee jumping, night tours, hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. After some back and forth, we headed out ziplining that very afternoon and had our tickets to get the local bus out to Monteverde the next morning.

The ziplining was a blast. We were put into our harnesses and after a quick 10 minute safety briefing we were off! We were shooting throught he canopy from one line to the next with barely time to think about it. You landed on a platform, the guy would unclip you, clip you to the next one and off you went. Then, allowing some time for everyone to regroup, we were headed for the lonnng ones. The first was the usual seated position, and was about 500m across a gully over the canopy. It got the heart pumping a bit. We arrived on the other side and were directed to a trail to hike up the hill so we could get to the BIG one. A one mile ¨superman¨zipline, where you face down. I filmed it on my newly resotred GoPro (we picked up a new one in Panama), there was a lot of high pitched ¨oh wow this is high¨, and a definite moment about halfway across when I was convinced the harness was going to give way. We both made it safely across however, and got ready for our second superman crossing. This one wasn't quite so long and you got to put your arms out like you were flying. It was fantasitc! You really felt like you were flying. I got to flim Matt coming in on that one, so fast. Very cool.

The last adrenaline hit of the day was the Tarzan Swing. A forty metre rope swing, which starts with a 5m drop before the line catches and you swing out over the trees. After walking out to the platform and seeing just how high you are, I definitely had second thoughts. It doesn't help that the guy doesn't tell you what to expect or how it will work, just starts clipping you to stuff then pushes you against the gate, so that you are convinced you're about to fall. Then he opens the gate and basically pushes you out (ok not exactly, but there was definite nudging). I screamed like the big girl I am, but once the line caught and you swing up and over the tops of the trees it's just magic. A definite highlight.


We got out to Monteverde early in the hopes of spotting the elusive Quetzal (called by some the world's most beautiful bird). We stopped at first by the hummingbird feeders and watched about 10 different types zoom in, hover, sip, and zoom back to a nearby branch. They were gorgeous, metallic greens and blues, yellow, red, you name it. Then we started hiking, we did basically all the paths in the park over the course of the day. It was truly beutiful rainfoest. After most of the day without seeing anything we got overwhelmed when I spotted the flash of red and green of a Quetzal and Matt spotted a couple of Coatis (think cross between a possum, a badger and a racoon) just off the path. The Coati really wasn't bothered by us and one of them even walked right by us to cross the path and find another tree to climb up. So cute. Matt caught another glimpse of the Quetzals as they flew away, but neither of us got a very good view of them. Oh well, you can't win them all.