Day 6 – Riding in the Cloud Forest

Ashley and I talked about a lot of different routes to do today but agreed on a 25 miler. Although we thought I had it uploaded on the Wahoo, it didn’t take. Initially, the plan was to go to the Monteverde Preserve first this morning and visit it for a few hours and then come back to ride. Anna, however, was not feeling 100% this morning and we decided to ride first.

It was chilly and wet. Did I say it was wet? It rained on us the entire ride. We ended up riding up to the Monteverde Preserve and turned back and then ended up riding down 620 for about 5 miles and then turned around. It was a heck of a climb. Whatever Strava is telling me on the elevation gain must be wrong, because my legs felt like they climb a lot more feet. The ride was perfect though. Not sure when I would get another opportunity to ride in the rainforest.

Arriving back at the hotel, we saw Mama in the hotel lobby. She was getting ready for her 11:30am massage. The concierge was kind enough to let us put the bikes in storage again. We headed straight to the room to change and then back up to the lobby to join Anna and have some well-deserved drinks. While Anna was getting her back rubbed, Ashley and I sat out on the deck at the rear of the property and just took in the nature. When Anna got done, we head to the Monteverde Preserve.

We visited the Preserve ten ago and we were all looking forward to seeing if it had changed. Unfortunately for us today, the bridges above the tree canopy we closed. The surprising thing about the Preserve is that it was a pasture back in 1972. The Costa Rican government knew of that climate change was affecting its countries natural resources and they started reforesting the country and buying up some of its private lands. In 1972 only 21% of the country was forested, due to farming and logging. However, fifty years later it was back to 61%. That is amazing! The mammals, birds, insects, and flora all returned.

When we got there and exited the car, Ashley flinched and we thought I had parked the car a little too close to the edge. It was actually a coati that was right at his door. He was so close he could have jumped into the car. We hike three miles in the Preserve for a little over two hours before heading back to the hotel. All of us were a bit tired so chilled for the next few hours before our night tour.

Anna decided to stay back at the hotel, while Ashley and I went on the night tour. Rodi was our guide. It was a two-hour tour on a private piece of property. We mainly saw birds nesting and insects. The coolest we say was a green viper curled up and another slithering across the canopy floor.

Back to the hotel and we all had dinner. Which was amazing!