Monteverde Cloud Forest

Today we were up before dawn again, and headed further up the mountain into the cloud forest. 

The three big kids and I signed up to do the canopy tour at Selvatura Adventure park, which included 13 zip lines and a giant Tarzan swing. 

I couldn't believe how brave the kids were on the zip lines. Some of the lines were up to 180m off the ground. They loved it all! The last line was 1km long and ended up back at the reception area. Oscar, Ellis and I went in tandem on that one.

I declined to pay the extra money for the official photos, so I only got this one short video of Jasper in action.

Jasper did get stuck on one of the shorter lines because he wasn't quite heavy enough to make it to the end. He had to pull himself hand over hand to get to the other end, and the park worker met him part way and helped pull him back. After that, the workers gave Oscar and Ellis a big push to make sure they made it all the way.

Penny is technically old enough to have done the zip lines (the minimum age is 4), but I am sure glad that we didn't have her along on this one. She might have made it across the first line, but it was set up so you had to go from tower to tower (with no way to go back), so I think it could have been a disaster.

Pat stayed back with Penny and distracted her with chocolate cake for breakfast, and playing "potions" in the hummingbird garden.

Once the zip line crew got back, we went on another tour at Selvatura, this time of the hanging bridges. A series of 8 hanging bridges were spread out over a 3km loop hike through the cloud forest. Every once in a while we could see a zip liner fly by overhead.

By the time we made it back to the main reception area is wasn't even noon yet, but everyone was pretty wiped. 

We spent the afternoon playing and exploring around our tree house accommodations.

There are about 6 houses on stilts built into this little forest. Ours also has a yurt attached on the back. The main house has a kitchen, bathroom and loft bed, and the yurt has a big bed and bunk bed. No monkey visitors today, but one coatis.

Later in the afternoon we walked into town to go to a playground. The playground was somewhat disappointing, with broken and over grown equipment, but we did see a double rainbow!

Travel day to Monteverde

The two hour time change had the kids up before 5am this morning. At dawn, we ventured out to explore the neighbourhood by our hotel. It was in a rural area outside of Liberia, so we saw lots of roosters, chickens and even some cows walking down the road. The big kids and I ventured a bit further on to a canyon. It was deep enough that we could barely see the river at the bottom, and I did not like the kids going close to the edge.

Breakfast didn't start until 7:30, so the kids went for a swim before eating breakfast, and snacked on some plane snacks and leftovers from the night before.

After breakfast, we hit the road to drive to our next stop, Monteverde/ Santa Elena. It was about a 2.5 hour drive, with the first half on a big highway and the last half on winding mountain roads.

We stopped at a cafe on one of the winding roads to give the kids' tummies and Pat's nerves a break.

The place we are staying in for the next few days is a "tree house", a little house on stilts in the forest, with a yurt attached at the back, for enough space for all of us. 

We were lucky to have several animal visitors to entertain us once we arrived.

We walked into the town of Santa Elena for some supplies and a play at the local playground. Early bedtime tonight listening to all of the frogs and birds sing in the forest. 

Costa Rica 2026

We are off on another family trip, this time to the north west of Costa Rica. We flew from Toronto to Liberia. The kids did well on the airplane. Jasper and Ellis sat by themselves 2 rows back from the rest of us, and enjoyed being independent.

We rented a car that fits all 6 of us, and one kid gets to sit in the trunk with the luggage, which is a hit (it's a real seat, just only covers half the back row). 

We stayed at a hotel in the outskirts of Liberia for the night, before a longer drive to Monteverde tomorrow. The kids are loving the outdoor pool with a cave and waterfall as well as the novelty of being able to swim outdoors after dark (it gets dark at about 6pm here).

It will take some time to get used to the 34 C temperature, but so far our trip is off to a good start.