For our second weekend trip, our whole group went to Monteverde, which is located in the northwestern part of Costa Rica. It is famous for its biodiverse cloud forest, hanging bridges, and canopy tours.
Most of our weekend trips we start on Fridays since we do not have class and we always try to catch the earliest bus. In this case, there were only two bus times: 6am and 2:30pm. We took the 6am bus and took us about 5 hours to get there. When we arrived, the hostel’s shuttle service picked us up from the bus terminal. It was very convenient and only a 5 minute ride to the hostel. We were welcomed by the cutest doggies of Monteverde. The hostel was very cabin like, spacious, and cozy. I liked it better than Manuel Antonio’s hostel.
I stayed in the four person bedroom with Julie, Mary, and a traveler from London, while others stayed in the 7 person bedroom. You could meet really cool people staying in hostels. The guy who stayed in our room, was born and raised in Hong Kong, and later moved to London where he has been living for 7 years. He is now traveling around Latin America and has been to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Panama.
After lunch and settling in, Mary L, Mary M, Julie, and I decided to hike down to the hot springs. We took the cab who dropped us off at a person’s house, where we would potentially be hiking in his backyard. We paid him about $5 to hike in his land to get to the hot springs. On our hike we saw a lot of cows and horses. The hike didn’t take too long, maybe around 20 minutes. The hot spring was amazing and felt great. On our hike back, it was a struggle because the hill was so steep, but it was a great exercise.
The next day we went zip lining in the cloud forest. We did the Extremo canopy tour. It had 13 cables, rappelling, a tarzan swing, and a superman line. It was indeed extreme and the best zip lining experience I have ever had. The view was incredible and the adrenaline was real. I highly recommend doing it.
On our last day, it was only a short day, so some of us took a walk into the forest where the ficus tree was located. The tree is hollow and you can climb on the inside. The climb was so high that my legs started shaking, but it was worth the climb.
Monteverde was a great weekend, and the weather was much cool than the beach. If you do go, remember to bring a sweat shirt!
