Costa Rica, Day 5: Santa Elena/Monteverde

Another 7:30am pick up today before an hour long ride on the rocky, unpaved roads to the Santa Elena Reserve cloud forest. There we walked the suspension bridges, the views shrouded with rain, mist, and fog. The rainforest was beautiful, but perhaps a bit too rainy for us. We both wore plastic ponchos and struggled against nature to keep ourselves and our cameras dry and free of fog. We were so glad that we didn't wait to do ziplining here, as those who did got soaked by the constant rain.

For me, the highlight of this excursion to Santa Elena was the Hummingbird Garden. I have never seen a hummingbird up close and here there were dozens of them zipping around our heads to get to the nectar feeders. They did not seem to fear humans so we were able to get quite close and take photos. Later we had an unremarkable lunch at the park's restaurant before getting back on the rocky road to our hotel.

5:30-7:30pm - We had signed up for a horseback ride that was supposed to take us on a scenic journey across Monteverde, through forests, ending with a picturesque sunset, at least according to the brochure. Unfortunately all we had in the way of info was said brochure with brief descriptions. It had been raining all day and we could only hope that the weather would be better wherever we were going to ride... When we got out of the taxi we were greeted by a chipper man who asked us if we had ponchos and if we spoke Spanish (un poco, not really). I glanced over and saw there were a couple children already on horses so I guessed there'd be a family along with us. The man then introduced the children saying, "This is Luis and Gabriela. They will be taking you." Uhhhhh... Thus began our wet, windy, muddy horseback ride with our 11 year old "guides." At one point, Stephanie asked the boy where we were going. He responded, "No hablo Ingles." This even though the brochure was in English with no indication of needing to be fluent in Spanish. And yes, we were the only ones on the tour. Perfect. I imagine most others were deterred by the weather. During the ride, I saw Stephanie's horse tripping and sliding as we traversed muddy, rocky slopes, and there was rain and wind for at least half of the two hour ride, rendering our ponchos useless. I suppose we weren't in any actual danger, but let's say I definitely didn't feel like taking out my camera. Towards the end, the kids asked us, "Toman cafe?" I answered, "si" and they took us to the Don Juan (local) coffee plant, which was actually nice because we were able to try out the coffee for free. After that, we began the ride back, darkness setting in.

Two of the horses and one of our "guides"...