Sleepers Sleep Cheaper Hostel Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Day 5 Yesterday was our last day in La Fortuna, so during the morning we wandered around the city and stopped at most of the gift shops and ate a small meal before leaving. Our Taxi-Boat-Taxi picked us up at 250, which was late like usual, and drove us approximately 20 minutes around the Arenal volcano where we met a boat that would drive us across the Arenal Lake to meet another bus. Our boat ride was 30 to 45 minutes then we rode another taxi for 1 hour to get to La Fortuna. The road wasn't...

Day 7 Today we had to be ready by 8 to go on the canopy tour. We chose to do Selvatura because it is the only one that is actually all in the rainforest. The rest of the companies are closer to the dry forest. So we got there and got all harnessed up and they even provided us rainjackets. We were given a brief tutorial before they took us to the 1 cable. The cables are really long and you are responsible for breaking by youself by pulling down on the cable behind you as you go with a really t...

Our plan today was to take a bus from San Jose to the mountain town of Monteverde. It's here that we would explore the Cloudforest Reserve, and do our zip line canopy tour. Getting there is easier said than done. Our taxi dropped us off at the bus station with plenty of time to spare for our 6 AM bus to Monteverde. The ticket office still wasn't open by 6:45. A man sat down in front of JoAnn and began a one-sided conversation in Spanish. The degree of confusion was evident as her eyebrows ra...

If you are looking for big adventure in Monteverde, then zip lines are the way to go. Our host, Ronnie, booked us a canopy tour through 100% Adventura, and they guarantee total satisfaction. For $25 per person we were picked up in front of our Sleepers Hostel, and whisked up the hills of Monteverde. The roads were pretty bone-shattering, so we were relieved to reach the reception office. After reading over a waiver form that would raise more than a few eyebrows back home [Jay signed his life...

After an exciting day zipping through the forest, it was time for us to pack our things and move on. Many thanks to our host, Ronnie, and his family at Sleepers Sleep Cheaper Hostel for showing us such a great time! Our next destination was La Fortuna de San Carlos, or La Fortuna, home to one of the most active volcanoes in the world-Volcan Arenal. Ronnie had booked us a jeep-boat-jeep transfer. For only a few dollars, we were taken through some pothole laced roads to Lago de Arenal. The "je...

Today we headed to a new place, Monteverde. It was an interesting trip. First by van around the volcano to some random turnoff on the side of the road. Then we walked down a ramp to a waiting boat. Then we rode the boat across Lake Arenal. On the other side we were helped off of the boat onto a wooden plank because it was so muddy, then up a hill to a parking lot. Hop into another van for a journey on to Monteverde or really Santa Elena for us. The roads on this side of the lake were horrible...

Last night we went to a restaurant where there is a tree growing in the middle for our celebratory dinner. Kate asked the waiter about cake and he brought out a piece of cake with a candle in it for Jason. The dinner was very good and we were stuffed. This morning we had an early pickup and headed for Selvetura Park where we would do the zip lining. If you don't know what that is, it involves being harnessed up and riding a cable/pulley system through the rainforest from tree to tree. It was ...

This morning I took the van-boat-horse route from La Fortuna to Santa Elena. The van went to the lake adjoining the volcano followed by the 20 minute trip across the lake and the three hour horse back ride to Santa Elena. The ride was fun and the views from the mountains the horses climbed were spectacular.

The canopy zipline tour, while not the best way to observe animals in the forest, was an exhilerating experience. In addition to the many platforms to zip between there was also repelling and a "Tarzan swing."

Finally tore myself away from the sun and surf in San Juan del Sur yesterday morning to travel to Costa Rica with 2 guys from my dorm, Filip and Amit. Filip is a cheerful Pole who has been working as a website manager in London for the last few years and is now travelling around the entire world. He likes random T-shirts and often wears a Britney Spears one from Nepal: he says it acts as a filter to find people who share his sense of humour. Amit is only 22 and has just got out of the Israeli...