Tag Archives: Monteverde

On the Road

Costa Rica or Bust! Monteverde – Original Canopy Tour

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Tony and I took a bird’s-eye tour of the Monteverde cloud forest earlier this week with The Original Canopy Tour. We ziplined through old growth and secondary growth forest with a small group and two guides, Tuca and Pedro. The course criss-crossed the private reserve of the Cloud Forest Lodge, and the ziplines offered incredible views of the treetops and the ocean off in the distance.

Geared up and rarin’ to go!

While we waited at one platform, Tuca pointed to a sloth in a nearby tree, right next to the zipline. He showed us how to stop at the tree to get a good look at the sloth before zipping the rest of the way. He even took our phones and snapped a few sloth pics for us.

The longest zipline was 800 meters, or nearly half a mile! Tuca stacked our phones and filmed the journey as he zipped to the other end ahead of us. I was so nervous he would drop our phones, but he must have done this a million times. Look how long it took to get to the other side!

On one line, several of us (including Tony and me) braked too early and didn’t quite make it to the end. We had to turn around, reach overhead, and pull ourselves to the platform hand over hand, like a monkey.

One scary but exhilarating highlight of the day was a 150-foot rappel down from a platform to the base of a massive ficus tree. Turns out the tree was hollow with rope steps constructed inside, so we scrambled up to the top of the tree and then out onto a rope ladder to crawl back to the top platform.

Me rappelling down.

Tony climbing back up.

Another even scarier feature of the tour was the Tarzan swing. We climbed some very high rickety steps, clipped onto a rope, and then jumped off. How insane is that? I swear, the videos don’t capture how high up we were. Tuka said, “Jump on 3, OK?” Then he counted to two and pushed me. Yes, I screamed liked a lunatic, but it was actually fun after the first terrifying drop.

Proof that we really did it!

On the Road

Costa Rica or Bust! Monteverde – Selvatura Hummingbird Garden

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On our last full day in the Monteverde area, I was ready to dial back the adventure. Instead, I wanted to hang out with hummingbirds. When we first checked in to Hidden Canopy Treehouses, Jenn had mentioned a few nearby attractions. She told us the birds at the Selvatura Hummingbird Garden would actually land on your hands while they sipped from the feeders. I obsessed about that for three days, and finally we went.

Selvatura Park is a conservation area with about 850 acres of protected land used as an eco adventure theme park. One attraction is the Hummingbird Garden with more than 14 species of hummingbirds that zip around to the various feeders and flowering bushes.

Sure enough, when I stood still next to a feeder, the hummingbirds would land on me. One perched on my hand for two minutes! I could feel his tiny heart racing, and I imagined him thinking, “Aw yeah, that’s the ticket. I can rest my weary wings and enjoy a drink for once.” After perusing this sign that was posted at the garden, I think my little friend was a green-crowned brilliant. In the meantime, other hummingbirds whizzed by my face and landed near my hand, creating a high-pitched whirring sound and a blur of wings.

Me playing with hummingbirds.

I love all the sounds.

Tony was less enthusiastic.

On the Road

Costa Rica or Bust! Monteverde – El Cafetal coffee tour

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Between nature walks with Koky, Tony and I took off to learn about the local coffee production process. We were picked up at Stella’s Bakery in town (after a delicious lunch), and taken to a family coffee farm in the San Luis Valley, right on the Continental Divide.

The San Luis Valley.

The El Cafetal Coffee Tour took us to the farm of Victor Ramírez, a local man who has worked in the Costa Rican coffee business for many years. In 2008, his family launched the coffee tour to give visitors a glimpse of their process, from planting to brewing.

Our tour guide, Gabby, walked us through the property and explained some of the eco-conscious practices aimed at sustainability. For example, all of the coffee plants are grown organically with a variety of fruit trees interspersed to provide shade, attract pollinators, and drop organic material that acts as mulch. She said Victor is constantly looking for innovative ways to reduce the impact of coffee production on the environment. He is presently working on new techniques to reduce the amount of water used in the process of washing the beans.

Baby coffee plants in the plastic bags.

A typical basket used for picking coffee cherries.

Gabby explained that a virus called roya is wreaking havoc on coffee plants in the region. Many of the plants on the farm have been affected and generate far fewer berries, so Ramírez is experimenting with different varieties of coffee plants in hopes of finding ones that resist the virus while also producing quality beans. Unfortunately, it takes several years for new plants to produce coffee, so there’s no way to rush to a solution.

Tony holds a leaf from a plant with the virus.

Unripe coffee cherries. Ripe ones turn bright red.

Machinery used for processing the coffee cherries.

Drying beans.

In an old house on the farm, Gabby showed us the way previous generations would have made coffee. We smashed beans with a pílon to remove the outer shells. Then we roasted them in a pan over a wood fire before pulverizing them with a hand cranked grinder.

This is the final product: Café San Luis. We sampled a cup at the end of the tour. Delicious!

Seeing this time-consuming, labor-intensive process – planting the seedlings, caring for the vulnerable plants, selectively hand-picking the ripe coffee cherries, and methodically getting the beans ready for roasting – reminds me of an exercise in my recent mindfulness training. We practiced taking “mindful mouthfuls” because we often eat mindlessly, not even noticing the taste or texture, much less honoring the work that went into getting that food or beverage to our mouths. After this tour, I can’t imagine I will ever drink coffee the same way again.

On the Road

Costa Rica or Bust! Stop 3: Monteverde – Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel

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Sometimes a place is so special, you can’t capture it with words or images. As I sit on my balcony at the Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel – sipping mint tea, listening to the wind whooshing through the leaves and the trickling waterfall and the birds whistling and chattering to each other, watching a coati at eye-level scurry across the limbs of the cloudforest canopy – I struggle to convey this feeling.

New Yorker Jenn King broke ground on this property in 2006 and has since transformed the cleared pastureland into an idyllic, leafy oasis. Her gorgeous lodge welcomes guests into a spacious area with stone floors, tasteful wood paneling and huge windows that look out at a hummingbird garden, lush forests, distant mountains, and the Gulf of Nicoya. Jenn and her “better half,” Gary, live upstairs. Her sweet boxer, Gazoo, greets visitors at the door, and her coy cat, Bear, occasionally allows us to scratch his head.

Breakfast is a glorious treat with traditional gallo pinto (rice, beans, fried plantains), eggs, fruit, homemade bread and cakes, and a tasty surprise each morning (banana pancakes, savory potatoes, French toast …), as well as locally grown coffee.

Tea time at 5 p.m. brings guests to the dining room, greeted by friendly attentive staff, twinkly lights, delicious snacks, drinks, and a gourmet dessert. So far, we haven’t felt the need to go out to dinner afterwards.

It’s easy to stay busy here. Guided hikes (day or night), canopy bridges, ziplines, rafting tours, art galleries, coffee plantations, chocolate producers, sugarcane tours, and attractions for lovers of bats, hummingbirds, butterflies, reptiles, monkeys, and well, everything related to Costa Rica.

However, it’s also easy to let it all go and sit on this balcony.

More shots from this magical place.

Jenn and Bear.

The main lodge.

Gazoo.

The coati who raids the hummingbird feeders in the garden and who is likely the same visitor who cruised through the trees by my balcony earlier.

The reception area, open kitchen, and sitting room.

The dining room at tea time.

Evening view from the dining room.

Johanna, my favorite staff member, and a gorgeous sunset on our last night here.

Our treehouse, called Rising Sun.

A lovely little waterfall runs down the hill through the property, forming several ponds.

On the trail behind the lodge.

I wish I could live here forever!

On the Road

Costa Rica or Bust! Stop 3: Monteverde

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Another sweaty but happy yoga practice on Saturday morning. Another delicious breakfast. And then we were off. Although it was only about 18 miles to our destination as the crow flies, we’re no crows. That meant we had to drive 65 miles around Lake Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica. Tony drove for the whole twisty, turny, steep hilly, muddy, potholey, narrow bridge-y, rather scary but beautiful three-hour journey. He was pretty tense when we finally arrived.

Fortunately, when we pulled into the parking lot at Hidden Canopy Treehouses Boutique Hotel in the early afternoon, Jenn, the owner, welcomed Tony and me with a diet Coke and a beer. She gave us the run-down and showed us to our treehouse. We returned to the lodge for tea time, but then we were too pooped to head out to dinner, so we crashed early, ready for a full day of cloud forest exploration tomorrow.