Friday night I was up late working on my final paper for literature, and I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Then I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about getting my paper done, and waking up on time, and making it to the bus on time, so I didn't really fall asleep until around 2. My alarm went off at 4, and it felt like I had hardly slept. But we made it to the bus stop near my house by 5, and found the bus terminal for Monteverde without too much trouble, and were there before 5:30. Our bus didn't leave until 6:30, and the ticket office didn't even open until 6, so we went across the street to a soda and had coffee and gallo pinto for breakfast. Then we bought our tickets and climbed aboard the bus for our 4 and a half hour bus ride. The last hour and a half of our trip was on a windy, bumpy, dusty road, but the view was spectacular. We made it to Santa Elena, which is the town our hostel was in, a little after 11, and immediately met a guy from our hostel, who showed us the way there.
Our hostel was called Cabinas Visto al Golfo, and it was fantastic. The people were super nice, it was really clean, there was a kitchen we could use, and a couple lounge areas with a beautiful view and hammocks. After checking in we ate lunch at a restaurant in town, then came back to shower and take a nap (Caitlin only got a couple hours of sleep too). Then we bought our bus tickets for Sunday (the trip to the beach had taught us to buy our tickets ASAP!) and walked around a bit, looking in the gift shops in town. We worked on our final papers for a while, then made dinner--pasta with sauce and green beans, yum. After dinner we got ice cream, then returned to working on our papers. I know, super exciting for being on vacation, but we really didn't have a choice, especially since we were supposed to have turned them in last Wednesday....
But Sunday morning made up for all of that. We went on a canopy tour with a company called 100% Aventura, and they picked us up from our hotel around 7:45. Once at their headquarters we got strapped into harnesses, learned the safety procedures, and then were off to zipline through the rainforest! It was pretty scary, not gonna lie, to go flying through and over the trees, while the only thing holding you up several hundred feet in the air is a metal cable and a harness. But the views were breathtaking, and it was exhilarating. Besides Caitlin and me, in our group were two others from our hostel: a guy from Spain (I can't remember his name) and a girl from Germany, Charlotte. Then there was a couple from Spain, and a man from New York. He was the only one in the group who didn't speak Spanish, and later when I asked him where he was from, he told Caitlin and I he thought we were Costa Rican! We took that as a complement. :)
Our guides were super nice, but really goofy. They liked to make jokes and one guy would hide in the forest when we were walking to the next place, and then jump out and scare us. The best trick though, was at the Tarzan Swing. This was a place where we walked to this area, then climbed up steps to this giant platform. There they strapped us in, and we jumped off a platform and swung like Tarzan! After we swung back and forth a few times, two guides on the ground caught us and unhooked us from the rope. So anyway, when Caitlin went, they had caught her at the end and were taking off the clips, when the two guys at the top of the platform let out loud yells, like the guy up there had just jumped. Both the guides and Caitlin hit the ground, expecting someone to come flying over them, and the guys at the tops started cracking up.
The last cable was called the Superman. For this one, they rearranged our harnesses and strapped us in so we would fly, well, like superman. It was probably the scariest and coolest part of the whole adventure. I was flying over this valley, at eye-level with the tops of giant trees, belly down and arms outstretched. And they say people can't fly..... :)
The rest of our day was calm in comparison. We ate lunch with the two other people from our hostel, who were both really nice, then walked around some more. When we went back to our hostel I took a nap in one of the hammocks (ah, bliss), then we went to catch our bus back to San José.
Well, I'm still trying to catch up on the sleep I missed Friday night, but the weekend was buenísimo, and I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Costa Rica. Now for a week of final exams!
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