"Hell and Gone from Cartagena"

and other favorite quotes from Romancing the Stone have been playing through my mind these past two days, as we've driven and hiked into some of the most lush forests I've ever seen.  Much like "ze Joan Wilder," I sometimes feel ill equipped for the journey ahead.  Wrong shoes and wrong clothes (well, not wrong exactly, but not the most comfortable), we headed into the rain forest yesterday morning for a trek through and on the famed "hanging bridges" of Costa Rica.

A truly brilliant idea was born when the government became far more protective of its natural resources and no longer allowed logging or building in some of these amazing parts of the country.  Since the owner of the land still wanted to turn a profit, he turned to eco-tourism.   What if we built suspension bridges throughout the rain forest that would allow people to walk up among the tree tops rather than only giving them access to the bottom of the forest, someone wondered.  And, as Field of Dreams taught us so many years ago, "if you build it, they will come."  Tourists from all over the world have done just that.

Of course, it should be rather obvious that in order to cross bridges at that height, you must first hike up the trails to arrive at each bridge.  Our first hike of the day lasted about two hours, and while we didn't see monkeys (though we heard them; a howler monkey's howl can be heard from 3 miles away), we did see poison dart frogs, leaf cutter ants preserving their colony, and a tarantula (my skin crawls just typing that word).  The rain forest was beautiful, and our guide, who would stay with us all day, was wonderful.  He took English in school but has learned to communicate so effectively primarily by working with tourists like us.

Looking up at the start of one of the suspension bridges

This tree has one of two types of root systems present in the rain forest

The poison red dart frog; we were assured that the poison in the Costa Rican variety can only make a human being very sick, but it will not kill us :)  Same for the tarantula.  So comforting!

The "leaf cutters" (look like fire ants to me!) busily at work

The bridges would sway as we walked over them; another Romancing the Stone moment for me!

Looking down (Maddie's feet :)

A look up at one of the oldest trees in the rain forest

Our view from the highest of the suspension bridges

Maddie and Daniel take it all in

A wild parrot just hanging out in the parking lot as we got ready to leave.

Next stop on our "4 in 1" adventure (which seemed like a capital idea as we sat in our dining room in Hollywood, but we quickly realized we had taken on more than we had anticipated!) was a trip to the Fortuna waterfall.  Everyone else on our first tour was returned to their hotels, and off we went to the waterfall.  When we realized we would have little more than an hour to hike to the pool at the bottom and then hike back UP, with no time to actually swim in it, Maddie and I wisely decided to enjoy the view from the convenient viewing area.  The intrepid boys, however, decided to make the trek.  When they returned just about an hour later, Dana was cursing the decision (though he did take a couple of lovely photos of some of the bathing beauties at the base of the waterfall :) as well as one of his exhausted but proud son, which I will share below.

The Fortuna waterfall - my view

The Fortuna waterfall - Dana's view

 Next was lunch in Fortuna, where frothy fruit drinks were brought to our table, and we were able to rest up for the next big hike ahead.  The third item on our day's agenda was a hike up to a ridge created by the lava that destroyed most of the area on the other side of the volcano (not so "fortuna" were they, thus the town on the OTHER side of the volcano earned its name).  Even though no new lava has spewed out of the volcano since 2011, this is still the closest anyone is permitted to get lest she gets testy again.  Unlike a volcano in Hawaii, where the "river" of lava flows, this volcano blows volcanic rocks into the air, many of which can be seen all over the area surrounding the volcano. 

For this part of the trek, we were joined by a family from Brooklyn and a young couple (whose hiking boots and pants I envied!), and we were urged to choose walking sticks as they would make the hike down easier.  As challenging as it sometimes was to hike up the steep mountain, I was far more concerned about not losing my footing on the way down, so I was thrilled to have a walking stick.

The start of our trek

The last few "steps" to go (check out those volcanic rocks!)

A view from one of our perches 

and we made it! :)

Our final stop for the evening was a visit to the area's famed thermal hot springs.  The resort that claims them is Tabacon, but anyone can pay the fee and enjoy the facilities.  And what facilities!  Just what we needed after a day hiking through such wonders was an evening in this setting.  After an hour and a half of enjoying the various hot, warm, and cool springs (Tabacon Hot Springs - if you want to learn more :), we enjoyed a Costa Rican buffet (though we're still not sure what is distinctly Costa Rican food, as the buffet had items such as flan and arroz con pollo, which certainly cannot be claimed by Costa Rica, can they?!)  We were back at our hotel, hopping into the shower and collapsing into bed by 10:00.  This morning we head to the Monteverde Cloud Forest (one of Costa Rica's other claims to fame is that there are so many distinct ecosystems here), where we will head out on.. get ready for this... a zip lining and Tarzan swing tour.  God help me! :)

Until tomorrow...

Relaxing at the hot springs after a long and full day :)