2006-12-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

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So finally after our trip we arrive to Monteverde, which hosts the largest cloud forest reserve in Costa Rica. This time we decide to hire a guide to actually see some animals =)... Now lets start our fun...
First we start with the amazing hummingbirds, they can fly at a constant position eating flowers and are the most agile birds I have seen in my life.
Then we go ahead with an enormous tree trunk which seems more like a root rather than a tree. Our cool guide explains: apparently they are simply some plants on top of the trees who start growing on the air, yet after certain growth they need their own roots so they start growing their roots from air to the ground!!!!! After they reach the ground, after a few of them get stronger, they get over the tree and actually kill it!!!!!
The third picture is very surprisingly an orchid!!! yes sweetheart I brought you some flowers =)
The bird in the fourth picture is the coolest bird of this forest, apparently there is only around 150 of them left in the world, their name is quetzal, which means feathered in the ancient mayan language. See the knowledge tidbit in the end of this page ***. Those birds generally come on february march, and are really hard to see in that season. Bird lovers sometimes only come to see this bird. They are really rare and hard to catch, even our guides were really excited when they saw them...
Yeah, and our famous howler monkey below looking dumbly at a leaf making philosophy...=)
The next one actually is a tarantula, and we really made him angry in order to come out, glad that I had my bug spray =)
Our last cool guy here is actually a bug, that totally seems like a leaf...It hides itself in the forest like that, do you think you could notice him without a guide =)

Yeah and this is our guide, he was the funniest guide I have ever seen and cracked us bunches of times there... He is very knowledgable and smart too.. A few quotes from him:
1. You see those avocado trees, they are 20 metres high, what this means is, if an avocado falls from there to your head, we have instant guacamole =)
2. Nature is absolutely perfect, it just made a single great mistake... Homo sapiens =)
3. Yeah there are people that come here for the quetzal, spend 2 weeks, cant see anything and leave the place sad... And there are some other tourists who come here, see like 5 quetzals in a day and then are angry asking us where the hell are the monkeys =)

And of course then we head for the la cataratas in Monteverde. The road to la cataratas is another comedy itself, we head to cross the river twice in order to get there. Thanks god we rented a 4x4... Anyways,, we thought we had gone through the hard part with the car... The lady told us that the climb is only a kilometer and relatively straightforward to be finished in one hour... She is the only costa rican I have seen and believed sincerely and failed totally miserably.. Me the road runner mountain climber whatever doer was just about to give up around 100 meters to the waterfall as I did not know where the waterfall was!!!! (I was also sick that day which didn't help obviously, but the ride was nothing that can be called easy!!! Look at the second picture you will see one part we had no chance but climb down...) Finally, even though I am the one who is sick,, Mehmet gets the good pictures!!!! =)... Anyways the view was really gorgeous so I am not complaining again....

But I told you right didn't I ?? Mehmet really gets the good pictures =)...

Anyways, you see how tired I am right??? But I am not complaining =)

This is an important picture, because this was the exact moment where Mehmet said, oh my god finally a perfect road... And he was not kidding he was just saying what he really thought!!!!!!

And those are the famous frogs of costa rica... Be especially attentive at the last picture, because it is a frog type which is only found in Costa Rica and nowhere else in the world... It has red eyes and is very rare...

And this is our car ferry that is carrying us to our next destination, Playa Montezuma from Monteverde... You can see the cars down on the ferry which we are going with...

And finally some peace of mind!!!! =)

So long for the peace... Now we are back at war!!!! =).... And it is a tough one as you can see!!!!

Ok I should admit that this is the only place Mehmet did seriously better than me in taking pictures... First three pictures are mine, and I forgot to properly use digital zoom on Mehmet, but still we can play with the pictures to have the same effect later anyway, right =)

By the way, people call the survival challenge in this water as swimming in Playa Montezuma!!!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures in Costa Rica... Why?? To understand just examine the second rule from the bottom more carefully =)

And these are my recipe for getting better.. Banana and orange lime... (This is the first time I am seeing some lime with orange color by the way... It tastes salty, a little bit weird and hard to eat, but still a Vitamin C pack... For the bananas, I still have no freaking idea how they were able to export fruits that were soo bad in taste =) )

And this beach was on our way back from playa montezuma... We really couldn't stop ourselves from asking, why the hell weren't we here instead!!!!

Soo this is our last stop at Costa Rica before San Jose,, the old volcano poas, which still is partially active. If you look carefully you can see the smoke coming from poisonous gases of sulphur from there... And this is the exact point in my life where I also understood properly that I need a better sunglass and I should not wear glasses =))

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My montezuma and Poas