Adventure in the Misty Forest

After nearly 2 weeks of relaxation at Playa Grande, we drove to Monteverde on April 15, 2021.

With us: our new travel companion, whom we met through a German Facebook group and who is currently on a similar travel route as us. We decided to spend the next 3 weeks together, driving from A to B and also doing excursions together.

So we drove into the mountains with his rental car. The road led us through an impressive street with beautiful views, many curves, and steep ascents and descents until we reached Monteverde - more precisely, the small town of Santa Elena.

Santa Elena is located near the Monteverde Biological Reserve, which is a approximately 10,500-hectare protected area with evergreen tropical cloud forests.
The Outbox In would be our home for the next 5 days, where we had 2 beds in an 8-person dormitory. The hostel itself was extremely cozy, very modern, and impressed us especially with the people we met there: always warm, helpful and hospitable.

On the first day in the misty forests, we set out to find a climbing fig tree. According to the guidebook, this tree should have grown in such a way that you can climb inside it. A steep, unpaved road led us to the tree, but unfortunately, we found out on-site that the area of the forest is now inaccessible. Fortunately, there are some of these special fig trees in the region, so we were able to simply drive to the so-called Ficus Bridge and after a half-hour hike, reached a beautiful place where the fig tree had grown like a bridge.

Afterwards, the two guys decided to go to hot springs and enjoy some wellness. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at the hostel and wrote the latest blog post. ;)

The next day started very early for us. At 7:30, the bus left for Monteverde Extremo Park. We had signed up for a zip-lining tour. There were about 15 ziplines waiting for us, each between 200m and 1km long, taking us through and over the misty forests. During the tour, we also experienced our travel highlight so far: the ride together (individually, you would not be able to cover the long distance of about 1km and get stuck) from mountain to mountain over a beautiful valley. That was really nice! :)

We spent the last day in the area visiting the National Park - Monteverde Biological Reserve. Right when we entered the park, it naturally started to rain - precisely at the moment when we had just bought the tickets. But what can you do: a rainforest without rain wouldn't be a real rainforest, and anyone can hike in good weather. ;)

We walked along the 'most beautiful route' recommended by the cashier, surrounded by the most impressive vegetation and always on the lookout for one or the other animal. At the end of the route, there were also some viewpoints, but unfortunately, this time we didn't have much to see. Due to the rain and dense fog, we couldn't really search the area. Completely soaked, we finally returned to the hostel, brought our clothes straight to the laundry service to use the luxury of a dryer, and took a hot shower.
Unfortunately, we somehow lost our shoes in the process - due to the high humidity, they still haven't dried out until today, and the excursion was 4 days ago. :D