Cloud Forest

Crossing the lake
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our tranfer to the cloud forest was by boat accross the largest lake in costa rica which has views of the arenal volcano. Then a 2 hour ride by bus to the cloud forest on some of the wort roads ever.

Our mountain lodge had a bedroom bigger than our downstairs! We spent the afternoon in the nearby town of Santa Elena and did a nightime trek through the cloudforest spotting coatis, racoons, porcupine, the largest spider yet and other creepy crawlies.

The next morning we were up early to do some zip lining in the cloud forest canopy. This was really exciting, much higher and longer zip lines than Tortuguero. One was 500meters long and about 80 meters high! Excellent. Less excellent was the tarzan swing - they sneaked us onto the ladder of this thinking it was a small rope swing but when you emerge at the top it turns out to be a bungee swing! Gulp. Oh well, you can´t back out when there are people behind on the ladder so it was time for some stiff upper lip...

Huge butterfly
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We went for a walk through the canopy on tree top bridges before returning to the lodge in the afternoon. A tropical storm then started but we went out anyway for a walk in the forest and spotted an armadillo.

Later out for dinner in Santa Elena, in a bar/restaurant tree house with a real tree supporting the building. Very strangely built, would never pass planning in the UK as the tree was still alive and growing!