Costa Rica - Pura Vida! Monteverde 'Santa Elena'

Here is the second section of our 4-week Costa Rica trip. :)

After the Pacific coast, we drove to the beautiful mountains of Costa Rica: to Monteverde. The air is different here too. Fresher! You feel like you're born again and you're in the middle of the cloud forest. When you head towards Monteverde and drive higher and higher, there's a small viewpoint. Definitely stop here. Fantastic view!

We settled in the small village of 'Santa Elena' at the Santa Elena Guesthouse. We found the accommodation in our travel guide from Stefan Loose. Backpackers are warmly welcome here! You can book any variation of rooms here, from cheap to expensive. For breakfast there are tacos. Yes, you heard right: tacos :D. The hosts are super friendly and happy to help you. We also booked several tours here: night hike, coffee tour, frog park, zip-line. For each tour, you were picked up in front of the guesthouse by a small bus and brought back again. Everything was super organized.

We did the night hike at 'Kinkajou'. The tour was okay, but we were too large of a group, in my opinion. There were 8 people + guide. That was just too many. The point of a night hike is to be quiet. Many people didn't understand that. We always walked directly behind the guide, because as the last person in the group, you had no chance to see the animal. What also annoyed me was that most people took photos with their 'bad' smartphones. We had our proper camera with a zoom lens. So we were able to take really good photos. Everyone got their own flashlight from the guide. But they were very weak. My friend had his 'diving flashlight' with him. Anyone who dives knows how bright they can be. Even the guide was fascinated by the flashlight :D. He even wanted to buy it from us. :D Of course, we didn't do that, we still needed it. I would recommend a night hike to anyone who likes adventure, but maybe not necessarily this one.

The next day we did a coffee tour at 'Don Juan'. The tour was really good and very informative. We were a slightly larger group, but that wasn't a problem in this case. Did you know that the Ticos from Costa Rica are too proud to harvest the coffee? Workers are brought in from neighboring countries Nicaragua and Panama. The people in Costa Rica are relatively well off, unlike the people from neighboring countries. The coffee there is harvested by hand. At the coffee plantation, you learn about the exact process of the coffee. Cocoa and sugar cane are also grown here. But the main focus remains on coffee. You even get a glass of homemade cocoa. In the end, you can try the coffee varieties from Don Juan in the shop and of course also buy them for home.

If you are a fan of butterflies and frogs, I can only recommend the 'Monteverde Theme Park'. Here you can book tours or just wander around alone. We looked at the butterfly garden by ourselves. Really beautiful animals and so peaceful. We hired a guide for the frogs. The frogs were all in large terrariums and we almost found all of the frogs thanks to the guide. It was already dark and the frogs were hiding well. The terrariums were outside. So we walked through them again with our diving flashlight and the guide was impressed by the flashlight again :D. I've never seen so many different types of frogs before. It's definitely recommended.

Of course, you shouldn't miss the Santa Elena National Park. You are in the middle of the cloud forest here. We walked through the national park without a guide. Maybe we should have booked a guide because we didn't see any animals unfortunately. Except for a few insects. But the nature and beautiful flowers were wonderful. When you arrive there, you have to sign your name on a list. This way they can check who is in the park and make sure everyone comes out safely :D. Which is of course very sensible. In the national park, you get a map of the park. You have the choice between 5 hiking trails. From 0.48 km to 4.8 km. We naturally walked the longest trail :D. It was definitely exhausting but also beautiful. But here too, I would recommend a guide. Maybe then you have a better chance of seeing the wildlife.

Now comes the most amazing and coolest thing I've done so far: Zip lining in the 'Adventura Park'. The so-called Canopy. Ziplining high above the rainforest. You are tied to a rope several hundred meters long and can fly in bird's-eye view. By the way, the Adventura Park has the longest zip line in all of Latin America: 2 km long. On one of the long zip lines, you lie horizontally (otherwise you sit) and can be Superman :D. In the end, you can try the Tarzan swing, which is almost like bungee jumping. You are tied to a rope and you drop down. And then you swing like Tarzan back and forth. Very exciting. My friend had the GoPro with him. Cool photos.