Monday Aug 21
We had an early start with a pancake and fruit breakfast (made by our adorable B&B host!) at 6:45. Then we were off on our first excursion of the day: hiking and birdwatching at the Curi-Cancha Reserve. In this area of Monteverde, the three main parks are Children’s Eternal Rainforest, Monteverde Reserve, and Santa Elena Forest. However, there are other smaller private parks/reserves and Curi-Cancha came highly recommended for wildlife viewing. After an easy 10 minute drive, we pulled into the well signed lot, signed in, bought tickets ($20 each) and rented professional quality binoculars ($10).
Curi-Cancha has a nice interlaced network of trails running throughout the property so you can easily hike as little or as much as you want. We only had a few hours so we hiked the lower trails.
The scenery was beautiful and tranquil, and seemingly more forest than jungle. After about 15 minutes we heard then saw a troop of capuchin monkeys high up in the canopy. They seemed to be fighting about something. You could barely see them without the binoculars, only the aggressive screeching and violently swinging branches alerted us to their presence. But with our high quality binoculars you could see the even the little hairs on their white faces.
We walked on, past a flowing river, uphill and downhill, until we came to a clearing, home to purple flowering bushes. Here we saw at least 7 hummingbirds, busily buzzing around from flower to flower, stopping now and then to rest on a branch. Then from somewhere in the forest, a little coati wandered out!
Coatis are in the same family as raccoons. He had a long thick tail, ringed like a lemur. His face had bandit markings, highlighting his eyes. With his long pointed, flexible snout, constantly snuffling around, he took no notice of us as he searched the ground for tasty grub. Whenever he found something good, he would excitedly dig like an overeager dog and then squish his searching nose into the freshly tilled, soft soil.
He really paid no attention to us whatsoever while on his breakfast quest. Finally, after spending a good 10 minutes just watching this adorable little creature, we continued on our walk.
The last animal we saw was a motmot bird. We saw one last night on our night tour, so we easily identified it by its long tail with the “broom” attachment. Apparently the more ragged the male motmot tail, the more attractive he is to potential mates. A ragged tail shows the female that the male has been busy meticulously cleaning and sweeping the nest.
Satisfied with our light hiking and animal viewing, we headed back to town. For the rest of the morning we stayed in and worked. Then at 1:20pm a shuttle came to take us to our zip lining excursion with 100% Aventura.
100% Aventura is a large business with the vibe of a busy theme park. We divided into small groups of about 10 people and went over safety precautions and equipment. First we did some easy, short zip lines to get the hang of it. Then we did some longer ones and even went “superman style” on a few. We finished with the Tarzan swing.
The zip lines were really fun and we had incredible views as we soared through and over the cloud forests. But I think my favorite was the Tarzan Swing. You walk out to the platform via a high, swinging bridge. After strapping in, you hold part of the cord and jump off the platform. As you free fall, the rope does seemingly nothing- there is no resistance at all until you get closer to the ground where it bungees as you swing back up. It was absolutely terrifying and I couldn’t help but let out an involuntary scream as I rushed toward the ground, feeling absolutely nothing holding me up. The whole thing was over in a few seconds but the adrenaline rush stayed with me for the next 10 minutes.
In total we did 9 zip lines, one rappel, a few hanging bridges and the Tarzan swing. The longest zip line was a little over 1.5 kilometers!
After our shuttle back into town, we grabbed dinner at a cheap and simple pollo asado place. We shared a roasted chicken and a chicken empanada. We also tried Costa Rican style chimichurri which is a sort of sweet and tangy pickled condiment with tomato, carrots, onion and cucumber. It was tasty but I still preferred the Argentinian style chimmichurri with all its herbs and garlic.
