Our adventure from Ometepe began with the very rocky boat ride back to main land Nicaragua. Cheridyn, Elise and I had a pretty normal boat ride, excluding the very bad dog horror movie that was playing for the duration of the boat ride. And then it hit us, a huge wave came through the window onto us and our bags just as we were turning into the dock! We weren’t soaked though, just refreshed.
We pilled into our bus and headed off for the border of Costa Rica! This was our first and only time crossing by land, it was a pretty easy process, I was expecting much more!
Our driver had never driven to Santa Elena, and none of us had ever been, so it was an interesting ride when what we thought was only a couple hour drive turned into all day into the night. Santa Elena is a town near Monte Verde, it’s very touristy and famous for it’s zip-lining and being in the Cloud Forest! So, of course, it was raining when we arrived. Our spirits were brought right back up by our hostel owner (Owner of the Sloth Backpackers) who got her brother, Diego, to show us a sloth who was in the tree right down the street from our place!! And it wasn’t just one sloth, it was a mom and her baby!! Best thing: They were moving!
Now, the real reason we went to Santa Elena was for the zip lining! And it was phenomenal!! Our tour brought us through the forest, made us hike and work for the actual zip lines. And then it zippped us across! We had a couple zip lines we did in pairs. But I think a lot of people’s favourite was the tarzan swing! It was pretty much exactly what it sounds like. We stood on a platform, got hooked onto a rope, and then jumped off and swung like tarzan! It was exhilarating! The other one that was also very popular with our group was the superman. For this one, our harness got turned around and then we got hooked onto the zipline facing down and our legs hooked up too so we were parallel to the ground, then we zipped across the valley, looking down and realizing just how high up we really are. For me, not seeing my harness or how I was hooked on really scared me; that made it just more fun though!
Our second day in the town, a couple of us hiked up to a Ficus Tree. The tree looks like a bunch of roots growing upwards to make a tree that we can climb! So Victoria, Helen, Kaki, Jesse, James, Elise and I all climbed up through the inside of the tree, got pictures of us at the top and climbed back down. It was a really cool thing to do on a rainy calm day in Santa Elena.
What was really nice about Santa Elena was also just being able to hang out in our cute hostel. We had a communal kitchen and a lot of us had a great time cooking and hanging out together in that space.
After leaving Santa Elena, we spent one night in Liberia where a couple of us went to see the new Breaking Dawn movie at the local theatre. It was a 2km walk along a busy street. (Yes mom, we saw yet another movie that’s in theatres now!) We made it alive and we had a great time!
All in all, I think free travel was a success!
Go itza!
Emilie
Next blog post about our past week with the Turtle conservation project coming soon!