Monteverde, Costa Rica. It's a beautiful place, particularly if you're a fan of fog, mist, rain, or whatever term you like to use for damp-wind-in-your-face weather. It's also world-renown for its nature preserves, spanning thousands of square miles of primary and secondary rainforest, uncountable numbers of endangered species, and lots and lots of greenery.

It's also well-known, even in Costa Rica, for its legendary roads. If you don't have four wheel drive, driving in Monteverde is akin to driving down a poorly-repaired railroad track. I've heard that car rental agencies won't even rent you a 2-wheel drive car if you're heading that way, and I can certainly see why. This is not the land of pampered SUVs, whose wheels have never touched anything but smooth asphalt.

In the daylight, we went on the typical zipline and nature walk tour at Selvatura Park. Out of the hundreds of excellent zipline tours offered in the La Venture/Monteverde area, we couldn't decide which one was best, so we asked a couple of fellow travelers who had been in the area for a few weeks. We went with Selvatura on their recommendation, but almost any zipline tour will give you the gratifying experience of sheer adrenaline terror.

For the zipline tour, we hooked ourselves to a cable a hundred feet above the ground and swung from tree to tree like Special Forces agents in a thriller movie. In theory, it's a nature tour, for sightseeing the wildlife that hides in the trees and isn't visible from the ground. But the howler monkeys and sloths aren't terribly visible from above when you're zipping along at thirty miles an hour, screaming “Halleliujiah!” Mud from the cables flew into my face and spattered my clothes, and I will confess to having had more than a mouthful of dirt in the process.

My husband pointed that without the constant presence of the crazy screaming gringos, these cables would quickly become overgrown. Life in the jungle is a study in competition, and any surface with access to the sun is prime pickings for encroaching vines, tendrils, and even trees.

The day was very misty, and as I flew along the cable, hundreds of feet above the ground, the world suddenly disappeared into a fog bank. In a day that had been full of the chatter of fellow travelers, the guides, and the clank and thrum of the cables and pulleys being attached, detached, and re-attached, I was shocked by the sudden solitude, still flying through the air, wind and mist hitting my face as though I were falling through a cloud.

After the ziplines and lunch, we went on a more sedate walking tour of the bridges. These bridges span the canopies, much the way the ziplines do, but with far less screaming. They're also slower. And, being suspension bridges, they sway every time you (or someone else) takes a step. Read More...