CR Days 5-7: Monteverde & The Pacific Ocean

Day 5 of our Costa Rica excursion was probably my favorite. It started out rough. Our bus slid into the ditch of the muddy road. Our beloved driver is skilled, but to make the situation less stressful for him, we all disembarked and walked a short way to our zip-lining canopy tour.

Pretty walk!

Practicing zip-lining safety with my pal Mal.

The canopy tour required hiking up a lot of stairs. Just because we were on a cushy tourist bus did not mean we missed out on exercise this trip. But the effort was so worth it! Zip-lining is crazy fun.

Our first run

I was the last tourist in line to zip line, primarily because I thought I had spotted a macaw in the wild, and I went a little picture bonkers. You'll understand my disappointment, then, when I saw the macaw in the gift shop after our tour.

It has a name and everything. So irritating.

After zip-lining, we went horseback riding through coffee fields. Probably the prettiest trail ride I'll ever do. For a beginner-level ride, we did quite a bit of trotting, which was cool for me, but scary for some of my students. I was very happy. And very sunburned. And sore. 

In the afternoon of Day 5, we went on a rushed walk through a jungley national park and planted a tree on some farm land. 

The next morning, we packed up and hauled out of Monteverde towards the Pacific coast. On the way, we stopped at Carara National Park. We had a great guided tour, with our guide pointing out a lot of wildlife we hadn't yet seen. Most exciting for our students was that we finally saw some monkeys.

These dudes were hanging down from leaves all over the park.

Snake!

Spider monkey

We made it to the beach in the Nicoya gulf near Jacó in that afternoon. This time, we were staying in a resort: Punta Leona. So we had the beach mostly to ourselves. 

Critter searching

We also spent Day 7 at a beach, this time after a drive south to near Quepos. This beach was packed with tourists. There were also a lot of animals.

So many raccoon stealing and fighting over our food! They're aggressive!

Agoudi

Sleepy sloth

After driving back to the resort, we relaxed by the pool, taking pictures of WILD macaws!