Monteverde cloud forrest

Last weekend 6 of us went to the monteverde cloud Forrest which is in the birth if the country and a moutainous area which is really hard to get to. By public bus it takes eight hours, but another way to reach the area I to take a four wheel drive to lake arenal, then sail accross the lake and then get a jeep for two hours up the most insanely bumpy and winding rounds I have ever seen! The journey has to be down in two parts as the jeeps leave only at 8am or 2pm so we had to travel to la fortuna on the friday and leave on the first jeep on Saturday.
Monteverde has been on my list to so since I first decided to come to costa rica as it the best place to seen wildlife and a cloud forrest is a unique landscape. On the drive up the hills I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the area. There was so much green, layer upon layer of vegetation, impossibly bright flowers, trees and cows and birds, a real feast for the eyes. I just instantly loved the place and because it's hard to get to it is not busy, until u reach the main town.
Monteverde is famous for it's trails through the forrest and as the first place that did canopy tours with ziplining. So three of us had signed up in advance to go ziplining on Saturday afternoon with a company called extremo- I should have known then what I was letting myself into! The tour consisted in 14 platforms high up in the canopy if the Forrest with steel ziplines between them which you zoom down between each platforms. You are so high up and the views were amazing I could see accross the whole reserve, for miles and miles. One thig I didn't realise was that we were responsible for our own breaking in the lines! Now most people reading this will know I am not athletic and do not posses much/any upper body strength, nit a good start. The lines were so fast and michelle and I just couldn't get the hang if stopping resulting in her crashing into a tree me stopping short and having to try to pull myself along (I ended up getting rescued) and both of us pulling a lot of muscles in our arms. Despite all this is was an insane experience. The lines were over 1 km long and spanned across whole valleys and it felt amazing. One was called the superman and you were attatched to the cable horizontally so you were flying! Completely unreal. One however was not so enjoyable and it wad called the Tarzan swing and involved jumping off a ledge and free falling fiir 10 meters before being hoisted round and swinging insanely up into the trees. Words cannot describe! I recommend the whole thing to everyone, I would do it again in a shot.
So that done we returned to our hostel for a quick turn around and off on a night hike through the forrest to see wildlife with a guide. That is for another post as I'm tired today after a hectic placement day- made binoculars and played adventurers! They loved it, and I have fun chasing them around! Much love xxxxx