Cloud bridge

Our next stop was the Cerro Chirripo. With its 3820m heights, it is the biggest mountain of Costa Rica. Before getting there we had quite a journey ahead of us. We took a small boat from Tortuguero early in the morning (4h30) to be on time in Pavona in order to get the earliest bus to Cariari. We arrived at 6h30 in Pavona, half an hour before the bus came. Unfortunately the bus driver explained us that he will not leave before the bigger boats were there too. Those boats came only at 9h30 so it was useless for us to get up this early in the morning because we had to wait either way.

In Costa Rica,  almost every sickness can apparently be healed by Aspirin.

 Despite everything we arrived in San José (13h30) and got to San Isidro del General (18h00). There we stayed a night in a local (very basic) Costa Rican Hotel. The next day, we drove all the way up to San Gerardo del Rivas, on the foot of the Cerro Chirripo. In the bus up to the mountain, we met a very nice expat from France, Jean-Christophe Bourg, who lived here for over 25 years and worked since 5 years as a natural tour guide (coming from an art teacher in primary school). He told us about a friend of his, who had a very nice accommodation. We accompanied him to the house and were immediately convinced. It was a house built entirely of wood similar to a Swiss chalet.

The front of the house in San Gerardo del Rivas

The entrance with the Harley Davidson of the owner Laura.

Our living room,where we spent a lot of time reading and playing violin while it rained heavily during the afternoons.

Our cozy terrace with view on the river.

 Initially we wanted to climb the Cerro Chirripo but after seeing the prices (120$ per person for a 2 day hike, all in all 19,5km) we decided to skip this adventure.

So after a day of relaxing, we made a long trekking tour through the Cloud Bridge National Park. It can be considered as a bridge to Heaven through the clouds. In the morning, the weather is always beautiful but in the afternoon the clouds descend slowly but steadily down the mountain. If you don’t hurry up, the clouds catch you during your trail. And then, when you don’t watch your steps, you will fall down the steep precipices and will find yourself quickly in Heaven (or in Hell). ;)

 

We tried to feed some 'wild' animals, but they weren't really interested and also a bit afraid.

What else is there to say? We didn't got the chance to taste their food, but if it is as good as their self-perception then it is surely exquisite.

View on a cascade in the Cloud Bridge Park.

A nice view from the beginning of our trail.

Our tour through the cloud forest was 14 km long (with more than 1000 m height difference) and the way was sometimes very adventurous. Two bridges were broken down so we had to get our shoes off and walk through the river.

 

A rustic old bridge over the Rio.

Double stitched is sometimes better.

 

A broken bridge wasn't enough to be an obstacle and couldn't keep us from continuing our trail.

Estelle under a natural rooftop.

A cute caterpillar

Sometimes nature creates to most picturesque artworks.

The rain did some damage to the mostly good maintained way.

'L'arbre des rêves': The dream of every living being floats through the air, gets caught by this tree and remains there for eternity.

Some very interesting grasshopers live here in Costa Rica

 At some point, we had to climb on big and slippery rocks along the river in order to continue our way.

In other parts of our trail, the way was completely blocked by fallen trees and hedges so that we had to fight our way through the bushes.

After 4 hours of walk, we decided to attack the first part of the very steep way to the Cerro Chirripo (where you didn’t have to pay for an entrance ticket yet). The trail started with 850 height meters on a 1 kilometre distance. We managed to do it in 45 minutes. We nearly died to get to the top but we made it :) Then we started our descent back to the village. All in all it was a 7 hours trekking tour with no major breaks, lovely weather and amazing views.

During the afternoon, the clouds will catch you.

Everything looses colour...

...until it turns all dark.

 

From below (in the village San Gerardo) it looks like this.

The clouds seem to absorb the mountain and its forest.

The birds sing the sound of silence in the clouds.

Today (7.5.2016) we went to the river behind our backyard with an American fellow named ‘Ken’, initially from NY, to discover an amazing, natural water slide. The river comes from the mountain and is incredible cold, but it was such fun to climb around those stones and old tree trunks, that we had to put it on the blog.

There was a whole procedure to get to the waterslide...

...but it was fun to dive into the unknown :)

Our next stop will be at an organic farm (probably without internet for a week)