Monteverde

After traveling to Monteverde, we took a quick romp up the hill from our hotel, El Viandante, to a HUGE climbing tree. Strangler fig trees are just like climbing a ladder, and this one went over two stories up.

We climbed up inside the tree, which was hollow in the middle, and had a lot of interconnected branches. It was really cool. I only went about 12 feet up, as I get scared of heights sometimes. Leif went up as far as he would fit, though, where the tree started to curve and go a little more horizontal than vertical. It was a lot of fun, although you can see from the picture, I'm in hikers, which are not built for climbing.
Haha, the whole way up, I was wishing Dad had come with us, because he would love this tree. He told me about how he used to climb up a water tower, and this we certainly not as high, but definitely as cool.

Further up the mountains, epiphytes grow on trees like this, and a whole new ecosystem can start on one of these. We saw some covered in other plants, and they have to be great places for animals to go.

After that, we bought a watermelon, some juice, and an avocado for dinner. Nom nom. Another night we bought queso tipico (Costa Rica's most common cheese at meals) and a restaurant made us some homemade tortillas! We had breakfast for dinner. :) Delicious.