{"id":5196,"date":"2016-06-12T03:19:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T03:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=5196"},"modified":"2016-06-12T03:19:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T03:19:13","slug":"costa-rica-11-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2016\/06\/12\/costa-rica-11-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica, 11 June"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sammy<\/a>
Sammy really enjoyed the zip lines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a terrific breakfast at our cabins, Orlando met us and took us to the Selvatura Cloud Forest park, where we began a zip line tour over the cloud forest. \u00a0Where we were in Monte Verde, Costa Rica, looks a little like a tropical rain forest, but in fact a cloud forest is different. \u00a0Where rain forests get torrential rains, most of the rain runs off and moves into tributaries of rivers. \u00a0A cloud forrest doesn’t have as much rain. \u00a0Most of the moisture comes from clouds that are pushed inland by ocean winds. \u00a0This means that the moisture comes in the form of condensation that runs off leaves and soaks into the ground. \u00a0The Selvatura park features a number of really long zip lines, the final one measuring a full kilometer. \u00a0At points we were hundreds of feet above the canopy, passing over and among terrific scenery.<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/a>
Ready for our zip line tour of the cloud forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soon after our arrival we were suited up and ready to go. \u00a0We had to take a short shuttle ride from the reception area to the first tower. After a short instruction session, we were on our way. \u00a0The first zip was short, but the next one was almost a kilometer.<\/p>\n

\"Samantha<\/a>
Samantha makes it look easy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tom<\/a>
Tom enjoyed the ride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Candy<\/a>
Candy barely had enough weight to create enough momentum to get her to the platform at the end.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"What<\/a>
What a handsome devil. Candy is SO lucky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After completing the zip line tour, we then hiked along the couple miles of trails through the Selvatura Park, which is sort of a privately held nature preserve. \u00a0Tom wanted to see a “big cat.” \u00a0Sam wanted to see a sloth. \u00a0Candy wanted to see a monkey. \u00a0I wanted to see a toucan.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of several pedestrian suspension bridges in the Selvatura Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m not exactly sure how long the nature trail was, but it took us nearly two hours to walk it, stopping from time to time to try to spot some wildlife. \u00a0There were several pedestrian foot bridges along the trail that gave us a chance to look at the forest from the middle and top of the canopy as well as walking from bridge to bridge along the ground level.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another view of one of the bridges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking up into the cloud forest canopy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down into the cloud forest from one of the bridges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sam,<\/a>
Sam, enjoying the view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One tree grew around another tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sam<\/a>
Sam and Candy ambling down the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Two<\/a>
Two handsome dudes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This picture gives you some sense of scale for the length of these suspension bridges through the cloud forest.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We were just a few feet away from this ocelot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The best way to find wildlife at a national park in the US is to watch where all the cars are parked by the side of the road. \u00a0Someone spots an animal and everyone else stops to see it too. \u00a0The same was true in the cloud forest. \u00a0We came around a curve in the trail and found a couple pointing into the trees. \u00a0It turned out to be an oncilla, which is somewhat smaller than an ocelot. \u00a0He eventually got tired of all of us staring at him, came out of his tree, and disappeared into the vegetation. \u00a0Tom was the only one who got to see what he wanted to see on the hike.<\/p>\n

\"Crossing<\/a>
Crossing the final suspension bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we finished the walking tour, we were getting hungry for lunch. \u00a0Orlando took us to a small Soda in town where we had yet another terrific meal. \u00a0We bought a few groceries to take back to our cabin as the afternoon rain began to fall. \u00a0We then spent the afternoon relaxing in our cabin. \u00a0We went to a nearby pizza joint for dinner, and then ended the day with some board games back in our cabin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a terrific breakfast at our cabins, Orlando met us and took us to the Selvatura Cloud Forest park, where we began a zip line tour over the cloud forest. \u00a0Where we were in Monte Verde, Costa Rica, looks a little like a tropical rain forest, but in fact a cloud forest is different. \u00a0Where … Continue reading Costa Rica, 11 June<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}