Long-tailed manakins and even longer zip lines

With 4 days left in Costa Rica before we flew, we um-ed and ah-ed about what we should do and whether we should head west to the Pacific Coast for the beaches. But the truth is Guy and I are more at home in the forests these days so we stayed in Santa Elena, kept our hiking boots on and headed off to the Children´s Rainforest, nextdoor to the Monteverde Cloudforest.

It was such a different experience to Monteverde. The lack of tourists made it seem that much more wild and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It´s remoteness was apparant straight away when we stumbled on a grey fox with a newly killed brid in its mouth at the entrance to the park! We followed the "Jaguar trail" that circumvented the entire forest - about a 5km walk. Mum had kindly leant us her binoculars which was lucky as 10 minutes into our walk we saw some strange birds do what appeared to be a courtship dance. We watched it carefully and quietly for about 20 minutes and guessed we were looking at something pretty special. When we came out of the forest a couple of hours later and told the guide, he said that it was very rare and hadn´t been witnessed in the forest for 2 years. It was the courtship of the long tailed manakin which essentially lives in a same-sex marriage. Two males dance together and then the best dancer wins the heart of the female and gets to mate with her! It was only when Guy googled it did we realise that it was one of David Attenborough´s highlights! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891243.stm

Smug faces and nature points all round!

We also got to follow a troupe of cappuchin monkeys around, walking right underneath them and even risking a quick shower when one peed on Guy! But I think you are probably getting a little tired of monkey stories so I´ll move on...

Cloudforests and monkey pee aside, on our last day we had decided to go out of Costa Rica with a bang and sign up for the canopy zip slide - a series of 20 aerial wires that whizz you over the top of the forests! Thanks to Rehana´s hen do and Go Ape!, I am now officially cured of my fear of heights and was right up the front to do the first slide! They start with a few tame ones at 40 and 50 metres long but then slowly build up to 400 and 500 metre distances! It was such a rush. The best bit had to be the Tarzan Swing. You get strapped to a long rope and then basically have to jump off a platform 20 metres high into...nothingness! It took gritted teeth and pure mind over matter but was excellent fun. Guy made a brilliant girly yelp as he jumped off but then tried to cover it up with a Tarzan cry! The final line was the big one - 1 whole kilometre of wire that took you back over the forest. We watched everyone take off and then get smaller and smaller as they whizzed into the distance! With feet on the ground, it seeemed to go on forever but once you were strapped in and doing it yourself it went by in a flash! If anyone plans to go to CR then its a definite must but don´t let anyone fool you into thinking that you´ll spot a monkey from the air. You´re going far too fast for that!

If you need a chuckle, then check out my face as I leap off the Tarzan swing: www.gallery.me.com/guypattison

After a slap up cheese burger that night to toast our bravery, we packed up our old kit bags and got ready to move on to Peru...