My birthday and Monteverde

This weekend Matt, Haley and I took a trip about 5 hours from here to a place called Monteverde.  The ride was long (although only 5 hours away).  About 3 hours into the trip, we hit dirt roads and were on them the rest of the way there.  The roads were curvy and steep and really only made for one vehicle at a time, but as they do in Honduras, the bigger vehicle has the right away, and the smaller vehicle must move to the side or back up.  We left at 2 in the afternoon, so Haley slept a good deal of the way, which I am sure everyone appreciated.

The road was long, but it was beautiful.  We saw all parts of God's creation on our way to Monteverde.  About an hour and a half from San Jose we got to a road along the beach.  The tide was in when we drove by so the waves were crashing close to the road.  The swells were about 4 feet, which isn't enormous, but it isn't the gulf of Mexico either.  A while later, as we were climint the mountain, we could see other mountains in the distance, and at the horizon we could see the Nicoyan Peninsula.  We climbed some more and saw Lake Nicaragua in the horizon with mountains everywhere.

The greatest difference in these mountains and the mountains I generally think of is the color.  All sorts of colors spread over the landscape.  The combinations are much more beautiful and creative than any landscape architect could create.  Our bus driver told us we couldn't even imagine the beauty of it all during rainy season.  He is right I couldn't.

After 5 hours, in the bus, we arived at the place that we were going to stay.  There were several little cabins in the midst of nature.  Some of the cabins had two rooms and in one room was a couple and in the other was a group of single people.  We were so excited to find out that the three of us had our own cabin.  Ours was a one bed room cabin.  It was simple, but it was great.  We would prefer a simple cabin in the middle of God's creation over a fancy hotel any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  We arrived just at sunset, so Matt, Haley and I walked down the hill to watch the sunset over the mountains and over Lake Nicaragua.  It was very peaceful and serene.  Sunsets in the midst of nature is one of my favorite parts of God's glorious creation.

After a few minutes to change clothes and use the restroom, we loaded back into the bus to drive in to town and eat supper.  We ate at a place called THE TREE HOUSE.  The building was built around a tree, and the restaurant was on the second floor of the building, thus giving it the feel of a treehouse.  It was neat to have a tree right through the middle of the building.  The branches were cut off on the inside of the restaurant, but the outside branches were allowed to flourish.  Therefore when you passed by the restaurant, you would not see a restaurant, but a tree.

Saturday after breakfast we headed for our bridges and canopy tours.  First we did the bridge tour.  This was a series of 9 suspension bridges and in between each bridge we had a time to hike.  As we walked through the rainforrest, I saw more shades of green than I ever knew existed.  Some of the foliage was florecent, and others were dark.  Because we are in the dry season, not as much was in bloom; however, there were still many berries and blooms to catch our eyes.  There were more different types of trees than I have seen in my life.  Some had vines growing down them, some were hallow.  Some were skinny, others were fat!  Many trees had brightly colored bromiliads growing from them; others had moss (and like everything else, more moss than I knew existed).  I knew bromiliads grew in the rainforrest, but actually seeing them in their natural environment was so neat.

As we walked on the bridge tour Haley rode in a backpack designed to carry babies.  She thought that was funny.  She kept trying to grab the trees and the suspension wires on the bridges.  She made silly faces, laughed, and giggled for most of the two hour hike.  Upon the last bridge, we had two options, climb up the inside of a braided tree (much like rock climbing, using the braids of the tree and some rope steps that had been attached) or to skip the bridge and go up the trail.  Since Matt was carrying Haley he walked up the trail because he and the baby could not have both gone up.  I, however climbed the inside of the tree.  This was fun, and who would have ever thought you could climb the inside of a tree?

After the bridge tour, I got to do the canopy tour.  Since we had Haley with us, only one of us could do the canopy tour.  Matt said since it was my birthday on Saturday, I could do the canopy tour.  I love canopy tours!!  I did the first one with my dad about 8 or 9 years ago in Roatan, and since then I have done canopies about 10 times.  As we put the harnesses on, they asked, who wants to fly like superman.  I said that I did, so they put an extra harness on me.  It has always been my dream to fly like superman.  Each canopy was progressively longer, with the last one being 750 meters.  I learned that I could go faster by pulling my legs closer to my body.  I zipped through the air from one line to another seeing even more of God's glory below me.  This was unlike any canopy I had been on because not all of the lines were near each other.  There was a couple canopies that we had to hike several minutes uphill to get to the next line.  Before the second line, all of the canopy guides gathered around and sang happy birthday to me.  Then, I handed one my camera and asked if he would take a few pictures of me on the canopies.  He was only at every fourth canopy, but I still got some neat pictures.

 At the end of the tour they asked who still wanted to fly like superman.  I most definately still did, but I wanted it on video too.  They changed my harness up some for me to prepare to fly and the guide said he would film me.  I thought this meant he would go to the other side and film my landing.  However, there were two canopies side by side and I flew on one and he did the canopy regularly on the other.  The video is great except that between the double harness and the force of gravity, all of my chub around my midsection was pulled down to make me look much heavier than I really am. 

The last part of the canopy was optional.  It was a Tarzan swing.  This was much like a bungee jump, but you didn't go straight down.  The Tarzan swing started on a bridge 40 meters in the air, that is a little higher than 12 stories.  They hooked the carrabiners in a few places and handed me some ropes and said HANG ON AND DON'T LET GO!!  I wasn't going to let go for anything.  I told them I really wanted to do this, but they would have to push me.  I was pushed before I could even finish my sentence.  At first, there was a freefall.  I told Matt it must have been at least 10 seconds.  He reminded me that if I dd freefall for that long I would not be here writing about my experience.  Really, I fell for less than a second.  The rope swang back and forth through the trees until the belayer down below helped me off.  What an adrenaline rush that was, but it was probably one of the scariest physical things I have done in my life.

Saturday night, after seeing the biggest, brightest rainbow I have ever seen, we had a barbeque at the place we staye.  The owner made so much meat, more than any of us could eat.  I had already eaten a piece of pork, yuca, and salad when they brought me a silver platter with two more pieces of meat right off the grill.  As they gave it to me they wished me a happy birthday.  I felt honored to be served on a silver platter, and although I was not hungry anymore, I didn't want to offend my host.  Matt and Haley helped me eat the meat.  Also, my friends Chuck and Mary, who are like grandparents for Haley, surprised me after dinner and had bought a cake in the afternoon while they were in town.  What a sweet surprise that was.

Today we had a peaceful ride home veiwing God's beautiful scenery.  Towards the end, we stopped at the beach for a few pictures, and Haley and I got very sandy.  I can't wait to take Haley to the beach for more than a few minutes