Monteverde was on my list of must see places before we left Costa Rica, and we finally got around to making it there this past weekend.  The area is a popular tourist destination for the zip lines and hanging bridges.  It only took us about two and half hours from Escazu, although the roads were the worst we have experienced here in Costa Rica.  We stayed at El Establo, which was a huge, but beautiful resort.  Saturday night we had drinks by the pool and watched the sunset over the mountains.

On Sunday we woke up early to do the hanging bridges tour at Selvatura Park. Monteverde is a cloud forest, so it was really cold and lightly raining up in the park. We hired a guide in hopes of seeing the quetzals, and we were so, so lucky because we got to see four!  Quetzals are much easier spot during mating season, which runs from March to May in Monteverde.  We saw two females, one juvenile male, and one male with tbe beautiful long tail.  The males only grow their tales long during mating season, so we were also lucky to be able to see a male ready for the season! Unfortunately, getting pictures of them were quite difficult due to dense clouds and their constant movement.  Our tour group was all much older, avid bird watchers, but we still enjoyed the rest of the tour and go to see an emerald toucan, howler monkeys, and of course tons of birds.

After our hike we stopped in Santa Elena for some coffee.  Monteverde is known for having some of the best coffee in the country and then hit the road back to Escazu.  We had a great weekend, and it was definitely a change of pace from all of our beach weekends!