Sunday, July 20, 2008

Cloud Forest

I decided to hike the Sendero de los Quetzales (Quetzal Trail) despite the pretty much guaranteed absence of quetzales given the time of year. I went with the two Brits and an Aussie girl named Talia Sawers since we were all sharing a room and it was certainly an experience to remember. Cloud forest is actually just high altitude rainforest but when you hike through it you feel the rain from inside the cloud. It comes down lighter but thicker, like falling mist, as though the raindrops haven't yet had time to form.

There are barking monkeys, roaring cascades, exotic flowers, and occasionally indigenous people. There's also an obscene amount of mud to trek through, and out of the 6 hours I'd say about 4 were uphill. We'd only brought bread and water and with my gigantic overnight backpack the wet hiking was exhausting. I also slipped while trying to cross a creek that had swelled from the rain and had to walk the rest of the way with squishy shoes and damp jeans. At least they were a little less muddy for a bit afterwards.

The others turned back just an hour before the end of the trail because they needed to return to Boquete but I had to finish in order to continue on to Costa Rica. We parted ways and when I got to the end of the trail I encountered a locked gate with this sign. Luckily it wasn't the way to Costa Rica.

1 comment:

DF said...

and that wooden fence was supposed to keep the tigre in?