July 26, 2003
cloud forest in santa elena
we spent three nights in santa elena, a touristy little town near a couple of reserves that are composed of ''cloud forest'', misty cloudy forest full of trees, and moss growing on trees, and plants growing on moss growing on trees. lots of vegetation, lots of moisture. also nearby santa elena is monteverde, a quaker settlement, the big attraction there was a cheese factory that we never made it too.
the canonical thing to do in santa elena is a ''canopy tour'' - you are hooked onto a zipline and go zipping across the top of the forest at very high speeds. unfortunately canopy tours are way expensive, and me and stephen are both wussies about heights, so instead we did something called the ''sky walk'', were you walk over the canopy of the forest on a series of wobbling suspension bridges. even that was pretty harrowing in terms of fear-of-heights... we may have spotted a elusive quetzal - we saw a largish red and white and green bird, but it flew away before we got a good look at it.
we also went on a long hike in the cloud forest reserve, and later saw lots of pretty butterflies at the jardin de mariposas. at the hostel one night we ended up playing some intense war and old-maid with an eight-year-old who was traveling in central america with her dad. the next morning we saw her waiting for the same bus as us and she asked us ''why are you guys wearing the same clothes as yesterday?". i sort of laughed and said it was because we were dirrty but i don't think she caught the xtina reference.
Posted by vis at July 26, 2003 07:34 PM