Hangin' With The Leonard's

Today we have a full-day excursion planned to experience some hanging bridges in the Central American rain forest.  After ziplining through the forest yesterday, how scary could this adventure be?  So we put on our hiking shoes and set off for the town of Bijagua.

Excursion #2 - Hanging Bridges Tour 

We were escorted on a 3-hour drive across the Pan-American Highway to get to the private rainforest reserve (this same highway begins in Alaska and extends all the way south to the tip of South America).  Lots of highway construction is now underway to expand the roads due to increased traffic and tourism in Costa Rica....adding at least an hour to our drive!

Nonetheless, shortly before arriving at our destination in the rain forest.....a sloth was spotted!  A what?  A sloth, of course!  These things are like major attractions around this area, but we've never seen one or even heard of them!  Picture a giant furball that can climb trees.  According to our tour guide they spend their lives in trees and only come down once every week to poop (no lie!).  This somehow prevents them from being found by predators before they return to their post high in the trees.  I don't know what predator would want to eat something that's as ugly as a sloth!  Bon appetite...nyeh!

This property counts four hanging bridges that extend between 35-45 meters in length, giving us yet again a new perspective of the rain forest.  Unfortunately, nobody told Jenesa that we would be hiking 4km through the rain forest to get to all of these bridges.  But once she was saddled up with a snazzy walking stick from our tour guide - giddy up!

After hiking for only five minutes - and stopping to look at 8 different birds - Leonard was ready to scream bloody murder and beat the tour guide with his hiking stick!  These people are fascinated with birds!  Red birds.  Blue birds.  Red birds with blue spots.  Blue birds with red stripes.  Same bird, different color!  Good grief!  According to our tour guide there are over 390 different species of birds located in the Costa Rican rain forests - and apparently - she knew the names of every single one of them!  It's a bird!  Whoopie!  I paid to see the hanging bridges!  Let's keep moving!

 

Alas, we finally made it to the bridges.  Honestly, our first impression was a bit disappointing.  After walking so far through the rain forest we wanted to be wowed over these bridges.  None of them were quite long enough to cause us to say oooooooh! or aaaaaaaah!   And, none of them were hanging over anything that would scare you silly.....unless you hate heights.  Although, someone (with the initials JML) thought they would be funny while their husband was standing in the middle of one of the bridges.  She began jumping up and down on the bridge, which caused the whole thing to ripple like a wave.  That kinda causes your butthole to tighten up in a hurry as you scramble to find something to hang onto!  Not very funny, honey!