Thursday, May 10th, 2007 - Arenal Hanging Bridges - Incredible!

Up pretty early to a beautiful view of the volcano. None of us had seen any "red" during the night, except me in my dreams (nightmares actually). I couldn't tell all night if I was dreaming or if I was awake. Then I would dream about dreaming. I guess that's what sleeping at the foot of an active volcano does to me...

Time for another mystery bag! I was not about to take any of these bags home in our already full luggage. This one was disgusting! You chewed this horrid gum then stuck the gum inside these teeth... The gum about made me sick! Looking at Jim about made me sick too... Alan was going to save his teeth to wear as Susan greeted him at the airport. I guess he wanted to make her sick also!

Then to a great buffet breakfast (included in the room price) at the restaurant to load up on calories for our hike. Off on "Heather's Adventures" or some name Alan came up with. This is the road leaving our hotel.




We drove back West along the base of the volcano and across the dam to the "Arenal Hanging Bridges". The bridges are 2 miles on a loop trail, crossing fifteen bridges, ranging from 16 to 330 feet long, suspended on the primary rain forest. There are six suspension bridges and nine fixed bridges.
This place was incredible!


Warm and muggy, but incredible! The plants, trees, vines, birds, insects and other animals were all beautiful (well a couple of the critters weren't so beautiful to me, as they were poisonous)!





We had a family of howler monkeys overhead and even watched one cross the cable of a suspension bridge.



We had one tunnel to go through - it had a scary name too!The monkeys must have been getting to Jim...







All the bridges had signs.





Another trail led us to a small waterfall and stream.









Walking back up the waterfall trail gave us a view of a hanging bridge from below.
The paths were all beautifully done, with rails along the narrow areas, trashcans and even a few picnic tables.




This little guy posed for us. He is a "Basilisk Lizard", nick-named the "Jesus Christ Lizard", as they are capable of running run across the surface of water for short distances.



If you look closely in the center of this photo, you can see the red, yellow and black of a coral snake (not my favorite thing I saw this day...)







We were told this beetle was also poisonous - he was about 2" long.







We saw a poison dart frog too, but my picture of him came out blurry, so I am cheating and posting a postcard of one. They also call them the "blue jean frog" as it looks like they are wearing a pair of jeans.





We had a nice view of Arenal Volcano from the end of the trail. We really enjoyed the gift shop here too! To see some other photos and learn more about the hanging bridges, you can check out their website at www.hangingbridges.com. If you are ever in this area, don't miss the hanging bridges! We really loved this part of our trip! This was one of the highlights of the week. Sweaty backs and all!Alan had to hang his shirt out the window to dry on the drive down the hill!