We left very early in the morning to go to the Monteverde Cloud Forest for a hike with a wonderful guide. He was so full of information and shared so much insight into the country, its wildlife and had a unique perspective on the cloud forest allowing us to learn and see so much.
We saw when we first got there a troop of Howler monkeys, but photos were difficult because the little buggers were quick to hide in the canopy and by the time I found them in my camera shot they would move. We could see a baby on a mommy Howler which was a treat!
The cloud forest is so beautiful, with primary and secondary forest. The further we walked into the cloud forest the thicker it got, the darker and more tropical! It was magical. We did a 3 hour hike and heard many unique bird calls, saw a cool millipede, a green viper in the tree sleeping for the day (it is nocturnal), toucans and a wild turkey like bird that lives in the canopy, and many hummingbird and birds. We were sad we didn´t see any sloths or the rare Quetzel (bird of Costa Rica), but had a great time seeing the plants and view of the jungle anyways. My favorite plant was a plant that the flower looked just like lips.
After our hike we had lunch in a restaurant built into a tree, called the Tree Top Restaurant. It was so cool. Then we returned to the hotel for a short rest before our trip to the Sugar Cane Plantation called El Trapiche. El Traphiche is the actual press used to press the sugar cane water from the sugar cane. The plantation was very typical, and gave the tourists the experience of growing and processing coffee, chocolate and sugar cane. We participated in the process, tasted freshly roasted chocolate (TO DIE FOR), made sugar cane candy that I will have to hide from my sugar thief, and had coffee with the plantation owners after the tour. It was a lovely afternoon.
Our day has come to an end, and I will be honest, This Chick is Tired. We are returning to Puntarenas tomorrow for a warm up since I am feeling a little chilly after 3 days here in the windy cloudy rainy forest! Then we are off to Liberia for a short overnight trip. Both Apryl and I are feeling ready to just relax and want to get back to our friends in the puerto!
Enjoy our photos!
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| sleeping rhododendron |
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| Tree House Restaurant |
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| Drying coffee beans |
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| Apryl grinding the old style way! |
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| The slender peninsula in the picture is Puntarenas. |
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| Costa Ricans earn $2 or $3 for a filled red box. So now they hire Nicaraguans... |
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| A barrel full of roasted coffee |
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| tasting sugar cane |
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| A cocoa tree sapling |
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| Cocoa Fruit |
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| Grinding Cocoa beans |
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| Added powdered sugar to pure cocoa made it taste sweeter, but the pure cocoa was great! |
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| This machine is the trapiche |
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| Bowling the sugar cane to make the sugar |
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| Owner of the plantation |
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| Making sugar cane candy |
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| Added coffee to our candy! |
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| Our bag of sugar cane coffee candy |
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