OUR RETIRED ADVENTURE
qUEREMOS VIVIR AL SOL
KSha
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
Costa Rica is amazing! Beauty abounds.
Panama is "home" for now. Loving life!
South America is next! Columbia here we come.
Said we weren't here for the adventure tours (this time), but couldn't pass these two adventures up in Monteverde. Ziplining, canopy walk and butterfly/reptile tour was a full day of amazing! Thirteen zips with the last one going for 1650 meters (do the quick math)! We both did the last one in the "Superman/woman" position (damn, no pics!). We worked hard to get to some of the platforms, but it was awesome! Little miss afraid of heights was an absolute champion! Canopy walk was next--just a 'quick' 3 km hike through the jungle and across suspension bridges (8 total); not sure who measured that distance, cuz it seemed quite a bit farther than that. We took about 200 pictures throughout the trek; but didn't see the pics presenting the unbelievability of what we were seeing. Walking among the tree tops of jungle as far as you could see was breath-taking and surreal. Not to mention the 100' plus height of the bridges and what was below. Here's a few for a taste of this super cool experience. (Dad, I'll have to let you see all of the plant/tree varieties pictures that I took later, hope the video gives you a taste.) We felt like we'd done a mini marathon at this point; and stopped to have some lunch and let the legs catch their breath. Repast and recovery had us about 10 minutes late for the start of the butterfly tour, which we joined the only other couple there shortly after the tour started. The butterflies are housed in an enormous enclosed structure that has been set up for the needs of a large variety of butterflies. The different stages of development are shown in the 1st picture, the largest cocoons of the owl butterfly (3rd pic) are on the green leaf. I needed to record all the great info we heard about the native butterflies in order to share more; but hope the short video shows them in action. The reptile tour was our final event for the day, and we had our own guide for the two of us. Again, a plethora of information that had me forgetting to take pictures as we saw the huge size of the native rattlesnake (the rats and rodents here are big--and so is the rattler! About double the USA sized guys in Arizona, etc.) The "Jesus" iguana is in the 1st pic...yes he walks on water, and we finish with the dart tree frog (not poisonous, but looks the part to keep predators from snacking on him); which is only a half an inch in size. We woke up early the next day and set out for our coffee, sugar cane and chocolate tour. Sharon and I, once again had a guide just for us. The origin of coffee, guess...nope, Ethiopia!, was shocking all the way to how the migrant workers from Nicaragua came to pick the beans and how the process has been modernized was cool to see first-hand. Sugar cane is a really tall plant and when it is ready to harvest, the plant flowers at the top with a 1 1/2' flower. We ate raw sugar cane from a stalk, manually squeezed the juice from stalks in a press and poured that juice over rosemary for a delicious "shot" and saved all the leftover parts for reuse and recycle. The chocolate portion was just as amazing. The size of the fruit was so much larger than the both of us thought, and the 2nd pic shows a freshly cracked open pod that we got to sample first hand. Sticky, sweet and not edible (just sucked on it a bit) due to the several layers that will need to be removed. The process that ends with what we enjoy is really cool; and we got to make the "drink of the gods" as you can see Sharon doing the final whisking to blend the ingredients. We asked for the recipe, but were told that it required a blood sacrifice and penalty of death...so we don't know the recipe. We were able to enjoy the finished product of white chocolate, regular chocolate and chocolate covered coffee beans, (which I believe are better than a cup of coffee!) before we concluded our tour. We were both wide awake on the ride back to our hotel!
3 Comments
7/16/2021 09:29:31 pm
We loved the zip lining pictures and those suspension bridges. Good grief, they were really long. Did you have to walk back to your starting point? The butterflies were beautiful. Walking on the bridges looked like you were on top of the world! Wow, those snakes were really huge. Cute little tree frog. Nice you had your own guide. Sugar, coffee, and chocolate tours looked fascinating! Sugar cane looks like bamboo .We loved the videos too. Quite a variation of plants and trees-very dense! Thanks for the great tour. Thanks also for sharing your vacation with us! Keep the wonderful pictures coming! Love you!
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Kevin
7/17/2021 10:22:57 am
Yes, Dad, big loop for the bridges. They said 3k, but it sure seemed longer, lots of climbing, but well worth it.
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Melanie
7/21/2021 08:53:24 am
WOW!! These adventures look amazing!! Loving the pictures!
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