Today is our last day in Monteverde, and we’ve got big plans! After enjoying another homemade breakfast, we hopped in the car and made our way to our morning ziplining reservation with The Original Canopy Tour. We had originally planned this for our second day in Monteverde, but there was some serious rain/lightning that morning, so we ended up rescheduling for today. We ended up having sunny weather, so we made the right decision!
There are many different ziplining companies here in Monteverde, some with longer lines and some with more lines, but after much research, we chose The Original Canopy Tour for their multiple experiences. Our adventure included a Tarzan swing, 10 ziplines, a rappel down to the forest floor, AND an opportunity to climb inside a hollow ficus tree. We went out with two guides and a nice group size (7 people total). The first thing we did was the Tarzan swing, which was a good way to start the adrenaline rush!
After the swing, we hiked a few minutes to our first group of six ziplines. The guides told us that we would be doing these first six lines, then rappel down to the rainforest floor, climb up a hollow strangler fig tree, and end the tour with four longer ziplines!
The rappel down and climb up the hollow tree was optional, but of course we had to do it. The guides can rappel you down at the speed you desire, but they made it exciting for any speed (no spoilers)!
After the rappel down, we had to make our way back up through the inside a hollow strangler fig tree…but it wasn’t just that! After you get out of the tree, there was a hanging ladder that you also had to climb which was a bit scary if you’re afraid of heights…just don’t look down!
Finally, we ended our ziplining tour with the longest ziplines of the tour…one was over 800 meters long (that’s about a half-mile for those of you not in tune with the metric system)! It was so thrilling to be flying over the cloud forest canopies, and even over the small town of Santa Elena! By the time we made it back to the forest floor, our legs had to adjust back to walking on the flat ground (almost like sea legs after a long boat ride). We hiked back to the main area where we got to watch a slideshow of all the DSLR pictures that the guide took of us, which can be purchased for about $20USD. We don’t usually buy these things, and we even took pictures/videos of our own, but after seeing how great their images were, we decided it was worth it. Most of the zipline images we posted here is actually from them!
After the adrenaline lowered, we realized just how hungry we were. If you know how we travel, it shouldn’t surprise you that we asked our guide for a lunch recommendation. He mentioned a few places we had already tried (which were great), but the one he mention that we hadn’t tried yet was Morphos. It was just down the road from The Original Canopy Tour location and had great food, drinks, and even a nice view…que bueno!
After lunch, we had just enough room for a sweet treat…which we totally deserved after not backing down from any of the canopy tour challenges…so we headed to Cafetería Evy’s World. Their churros are amazing!
We headed back to our AirBnb to get some rest after filling our stomachs because for dinner we have a reservation at San Lucas Treetop Dining Experience. We made this reservation before coming to Costa Rica because we knew this was an experience we couldn’t pass up…and reservations are definitely required because they only have 5 private bungalows up in the tree canopy for a 2.5 hour, 7-course meal! We originally made the reservations for 6pm, but after arriving in Costa Rica, we soon realized how early the sun sets and moved our dinner reservation to 5:00pm so we could watch the sunset…they’re just so magical here!
It’s a bit pricey compared to other dinners, but we both agree that it’s well worth it and highly recommend the adventure. Each course was delicious, but we say adventure because each course was accompanied with a story told by our waitress who told about the history of Monteverde through their dishes. There was even a secret box that we had to open via a lock to gain access to the 7th course! The code for the lock was embedded in a puzzle that could only be solved via clues mentioned in the stories told by our waitress…who doesn’t love a good brain teaser during dinner?!
First Course: The Monteverde Garden – In 1950, a group of Quakers moved from Alabama to Monteverde because they didn’t agree with tax dollars going towards war efforts. They chose this region for its fertile lands and friendly people.
Second Course: The Ficus Tree – Also known as the strangler fig, the ficus is a very popular species here in Costa Rica. This dish represented the famous “hollow” tree that we’ve seen so much of. We even climbed inside one earlier today!
Third Course: Chira Island – One of 6 islands that can be seen from our treetop bungalow. This dish contained a local seabass from Chira Island. Our waitress even mentioned that the restaurant name, San Lucas, is to honor one of the 6 islands!
Fourth Course: Monteverde Cheese Factory – The Cheese Factory, located in Monteverde, was started by the Quakers.
Fifth Course: Altitude Coffee – This dish represents the coffee industry here in Monteverde. The coffee that is grown here is of such high quality in large part due to the high altitude (over 4,000ft). You may notice that we included two different images here. One of us got the beef shank and the other opted for the lamb.
Sixth Course: Cloud Forest and our Orchids – This dish was to pay homage to the over 600 species of orchids in here Monteverde. The dessert was made from vanilla, which is an orchid that only blooms once a year!
After the sixth course, our waitress asked us if we had the secret code figured out yet, and we thought we did so we gave the lock a try…but failed on our first try! We got a little nervous that we wouln’t get to enjoy the 7th course, but she was a good sport. She gave us a bit more information and we were finally able to open the box to our seventh course!
Seventh Course: Our “Quakers” Neighbors and Their Sweets – This course represents San Lucas Island, as it was one of the largest prisons in the country for 117 years (it has since closed).
The whole experience was well thought out and the food was some of the best, most unique cuisine we’ve had in all of our travels. Oh, and don’t forget about the sunset…you just can’t beat these sunset views!
We left the San Lucas Treetop Dining Experience with VERY full stomachs…and an even fuller heart knowing more about Monteverde and Costa Rica! Once we got home, we fell right asleep! Tomorrow we’ll be leaving Monteverde to start our South Pacific journey. Manuel Antonio is our first stop, and it’s the most visited national park in the country…so stay posted to find out why!