Zippity Doo Da

Our next stop, high in the cloudforest, was the strange little town of Monteverde. Founded by Quakers for dairy production, it had an Alpine feel to it only enhanced by the weather, which found us in shoes, jeans, jumpers and raincoats for the first time in what felt like forever. It was actually quite a welcome change and made me very nostalgic for the autumn I am missing back home.

The region is famous for its numerous zip lines and canopy tours, so we booked ourselves on one straight away and spent the most incredible morning hurtling through the treetops on zip-wires up to 750m long and god knows how high. The mist and rain affected the visibility so much that on the longer runs you were just launching into a wall of grey, the wire disappearing into nothingness, until about half way along you could see neither where you were going nor where you had come from but only the valley floor far below and the forest canopy as it hurtled past. Truly exhilarating. The course also included a huge 'tarzan swing' which was a real heart-in-mouth leap of faith. Although you only free-fell initially for about 4 or 5 metres, it felt like a hell of a long way, and when the wire tautened and you started swinging out over the valley at breakneck speed, hurtling towards a large and extremely solid looking tree, it was impossible not to scream. Needless to say I didn't hit the tree, but swung merrily backwards and forwards a few times with my stomach doing cartwheels before they reined me in. A great day.

Monteverde, Costa Rica