Night Hike and Sloth Sanctuary!

And now back to our regularly scheduled crap how we spent my birthday vacation in 20 billion words or less.

After our somewhat unexpected strenuous hike around the Monteverde Reserve, we "had" to stop at the Monteverde Cheese Factory.
"Had" to for their milk shakes and wonderful cheeses.
Sharp cheddars and goudas ~ perfect for hora felizes!

So back to Hotel El Bosque for naps, cold showers (the neglected to tell us they turn the hot water heaters off in the afternoons...) and their Night Hike!
With flashlights in hand, a guide and 4 other hikers off we went into the dusk on yet another trail...
With calves hurting...
More up, down, up, down.
It was great!
We saw agouti, coatimundi, raccoons, grasshoppers and other insects, a tarantula the size of a small volkswagen and the best part:
Hundreds of lightning bugs!
Then a sprint across the road to Cafe Cabure.
YUM!
We all had great meals ~ mine was chicken satay with an incredible house salad.

As Alan and Susan like to say:
It just keeps getting better and better!
And the next day it did!

Next stop, The Sloth Sanctuary of Monteverde.

No words can describe how wonderful this place was, but I will try anyway!
First of all, we found the Sloth Sanctuary by accident.
Just by driving by on the way to the Monteverde Biological Reserve.
Hmmmm... that place looks interesting!
And it was more than interesting.
It was amazing.
Incredible.
Over-the-top.
Better than better.
Instead of writing all about it and what we learned, learn for yourself here.

Cutest.
Faces.
Ever.

And then we came out to this:

Really, street tires on a rental car in Costa Rica just do not work.