After breakfast we left La Fortuna early and made a stop at the “Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges” on the way.
Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges There is a longer walk there that leads over many bridges, including some suspension bridges.
Suspension bridge A large part of the path is even suitable for wheelchairs and strollers and there were quite a few visitors there besides us.
Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges circular route The first part of the tour went quite well, but at the first suspension bridge there was a queue of people and we had to stand in a long queue.
Suspension bridge A maximum of 15 people were allowed on the bridge at the same time and there was a guard at each suspension bridge who made sure that not too many people crossed.
View from the suspension bridge From above you had a nice view - but also straight down because you could see through the grille under your feet...
Suspension bridge It took us almost three hours to cover the 3 kilometers, waiting in front of the bridges and strolling to observe nature (we saw spider monkeys jumping through the trees, for example).
Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges After so much altitude on foot, we also went up high by car: to get to Monteverde, we drove through the mountains.
View of Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges We first saw a sign on the road saying you shouldn't feed the coatis, and just around the next bend we saw a coati that was being fed.
coati Instead he stayed on the side of the road for our photo and a quick observation.
coati On the further journey we met two more of the cute animals.
coati Then we went past Lake Arenal, which we also saw from the other side.
Lake Arenal At first we were surprised at the stated travel time because the roads had been quite well developed so far.
Lake Arenal But we understood that it would take us 90 minutes to cover the remaining 30 kilometers when the asphalt road suddenly ended and only a gravel road remained.
Drive to Monteverde It went up and down curves over clay and gravel with potholes, although the view of the landscape in this area was nice.
Drive to Monteverde A short stopover was necessary because an iguana had made itself comfortable on the road in the sun. He didn't mind that we drove around him in the car, but just stayed seated.
Iguana on the way to Monteverde Nevertheless, the driver in particular was happy when we finally reached a larger road again and shortly afterwards our hotel, the “Cloud Forest Lodge” near Santa Elena.
Cloud Forest Lodge hotel complex After a short rest on the terrace with a coati sighting, we drove back to the town where a huge traffic jam had formed. But we had already parked our car and strolled through the streets again.
