Costa Rica | Part 5 | Tiny Sputniks

Since I am writing these posts about 3 years after the trip, I'm both shocked and surprised how much we did. I forgot a lot of it until I went back through my photos and travel journal. On our 5th day we started out the day by going zip lining. I had never gone zip lining so this was something I was really looking forward to it. I was more nervous about not positioning myself right and getting hurt or dying than I was about actually being tied to a small wire that was hundreds of feet above the ground. The zip lining place actually started off small and easy to get you eased into it. It was really fun, but we had long waits in between. The last course was worth it. We zip lined across a HUGE valley. The view was incredible! I'd 100% do it again. The only picture I got were the two macaws that spoke Spanish.

After zip lining we went to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. It was a similar experience to the night walk, but it was during the day. We walked up to the top of a lookout, but it was too foggy to see anything. I don't remember much about this experience, honestly.

We went back to the hotel and after lunch we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve to plant trees. There is a huge conservation effort happening in Costa Rica to replant trees in areas that experienced heavy deforestation. I love this, and I hope they do the same in Brazil with the deforestation of the Amazon. While we were walking on the hill to find places to plant trees, I saw a HUGE spider. That really freaked me out. I would never ever be able to survive in a warm tropical place. Give me Russian winters any day.

We went back to the hotel and some of us walked to get groceries and coffee at Santa Elena Center. Our guide was able to secure us dance lessons at a local club and had a brother and sister teach us. We all headed over to the club which was a short walk from the hotel. I partnered with Tre, a chaperone from another school. We became friends on the bus ride and we were both the odd numbered person in our groups. We learned salsa, bachata, and one other dance. It was laughing so hard because I have no rhythm, I tried to have fun though, so the kids would see us having a good time. The one dance instructor was like "Come on guys! If I can dance with my sister you can dance to!" After the dance lessons, we headed back for dinner.