Jungle Women!

We left Jaco saturday morning for Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone. We were sad to leave the beach, but were excited to see a new part of the countryside as well as spend some time with my mom's friends. However, before we left Jaco my mom and I had to have one last adventure: zip line-ing through the canopy! It was so much fun. I was a little worried since my mom is a tad afraid of heights ... we saw one of the zip line platforms during our run up the canopy trail the other day and she said, "oh Maya, look at that tree house!" and I responded, "Mom, that is one of the zip line platforms." Her only thought about it was, "crap that's high!" She was a little hesitant at first, but after the first few platforms, she started to get into it and have some fun. There were 15 total platforms that started high up in the canopy and gradually decreased in elevation so you could see all the different levels of the canopy.

We didn't see many animals along the zip line unfortunately. I think between the noise the zip line makes and the people noises, we effectively scared them all away. At the bottom of the zip line we did see a nest of little parakeets and several iguanas!

After our zip line adventure, we finished packing up our bags and left with several of my mom's friends who were going to drive us to Tom and Susan's bed and breakfast in San Ramone, Vista Valverde (www.vistavalverde.com).

We stopped along the way to visit the crocodiles. For some reason, there is a particular bridge between Jaco and San Ramon that is known for having tons of crocodiles. We hopped out of the car (but remained high above them on the bridge) to take a look. There were so many crocodiles there! Many were easily 15 ft long. It was quite impressive!

We made it to Vista Valverde late in the afternoon. Vista Valverde is beautiful. I am really impressed with the amazing views and beautiful countryside. We are now at about 4,000 ft above sea level in the mountains. It is so beautiful here, with rolling hills and large expanses of untouched terrain. Tom and Susan have done an amazing job building the guest houses (cabinas) and the Taller (workshop), where they serve meals for guests. Once we arrived, my Mom and Tom caught up on old times. We had a very nice evening hanging out and chatting.

One of the cabinas for guests of Vista Valverde