Monteverde

Aha! I am updating.

I spent this past weekend in Monteverde (very green, very cloudy at times, very beautiful mountain area). Here are the bigger events of the weekend:

- I went ziplining on Saturday! 11 cables, 1 of them called the Superman (where instead of sitting and whooshing through/above the trees, you are strapped on parallel to the ground so that you can stretch your arms out and pretend to be Superman if you so wished), and 1 Tarzan swing (verrrry similar to bungee jumping, except you fall a much shorter distance and you swing instead of bounce once you realize that the cable has caught you and you are not going to die).

- The next morning, I went on a hike through the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso in Monteverde (aka cloud forest). I don't really ever go hiking...but this was one of my favorite things that I've done so far. Sure it was beautiful, but the fact that it was mostly untouched, wild, and so very different from anything I had ever seen before made it just so.....awesome. And the cool temperature was a very welcome relief from the usual heat of Costa Rica. At one point, the 3 other girls I was hiking with and I made it to the top of the mountain (don't be too impressed, we were already high up on these mountains, and the bus drove us up even more). On a clear day, you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans from that point, but it was actually a very cloudy day. I would have loved to see both of those oceans, but standing at the peak looking out into nothing but white...was amazing. Seriously, I couldn't see anything but white cloud/fog/mist. The wind was strong up there, and just standing still, soaking up the mystery of this wild, blank, otherworldly place was breathtaking. I realized the majesty of God in this place more than any other that I've been in so far in CR. What's more, we made it to a hanging bridge somewhere in the reserve and saw a quetzal! These birds are apparently rather rare to see, but I am glad someone in our group saw it because it was gorgeous. Here's a picture I found on Google images since the ones I took aren't the clearest: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56951204@N00/2335324304/

Whew. Okay. Here are some of the smaller events of the weekend:

- There was a cat! Outside our hotel rooms. It was so cute! It even spent an hour or so inside my room, sleeping on my bed. I took pictures. =] Actually I was really happy, since that was the first time I got to play with a cat in over two years or something like that....I actually like them more than dogs.....just a little....I think....

- Our bus became a party bus for a little while on the way back since the driver turned on the karaoke feature and everyone started singing to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and the Black Eyed Peas. That was entertaining.

Haha that's about it....oh! Right, so the Children's Museum I went to Friday morning was pretty cool too. It actually used to be a penitentiary, so it looked like a prison, but was reformed into a place for kids hahaha......

I've been here for almost a month now! Next week is the last week of classes for session 1, and then I get a week's break before session 2 classes start. Everything seems to have flown by so far. For the free week, I might go to Puerto Viejo and to Boca del Toro in Panama. Buuuut that costs money, so I may not.....

In any case, that is the update! Photos up on Facebook soon =]