Butterflies, cows, and adrenaline in Monteverde

 The town of Monteverde is in the mountains of Costa Rica, and it is so windy here! No more sunny beaches, instead I'm wearing pants and long sleeves to try to stay warm, although it is still beautiful here, and green! We started the day off yesterday with a tour of a butterfly garden. It was amazing to learn more about these little creatures and I was mesmerized by their beauty. There were so many different kinds to be seen, and so many different colors.
After this, we took a tour of a dairy farm. I don't think they do this tour very often, because the tour guide didn't seem like he knew what to talk about, but it was still a lot of fun! I never milked a cow before, and that was definitely unique! I'm no where as good as the farm boys, but I was able to get the technique down a little bit. I was surprised at how much it tired out my forearms, it must have been quite a work out when they used to do it all by hand! We even got to drink some fresh milk, with a little bit of chocolate mixed in. It was surprisingly delicious! and still warm. After this I got to feed a calf, and these guys were surprisingly strong! The calves don't have teeth, so if you stick your hand out they'll suck on it trying to get milk. It was the weirdest sensation! The roofs of their mouths are pretty rough though, so it wasn't too pleasant. Once they started though they didn't want to stop! They kept coming after us trying to suck on our hands, one of them even tried to ram Nate into compliance. It was definitely a unique experience.

Today was more of an adrenaline filled day. We woke up early and took a repelling tour. Not just regular repelling though, it was more exciting than that! We repelled down 6 waterfalls (Ok, they were all pretty short and they weren't gushing water, but it was still scary for me!). Most were very short, but the longest one was 40m. Even the small ones made me nervous, but the big one was scary. The rocks are a little slippery, and it's sometimes difficult to figure out where to put your feet because it is so uneven. Going down the tall waterfall was definitely a challenge for me, but I'm glad we did it, it was a lot of fun! The water was freezing and we got soaked! When you reach the bottom of the waterfall you have to jump in, and the water was between knee and waist deep usually. We literally repelled down the waterfall though, not on the side of it, so we had water hitting our legs and sometimes even pelting us in the face! On the last waterfall the  repel rope didn't reach all the way down, so we were supposed to jump the few remaining feet into the water. When I went to jump though the guide who was holding a second repel rope (for safety!) didn't let go of his, so I only dropped a few inches and then started swinging back into the rock. Then he decided to let go, plunging me into the water unexpectedly and giving my a shot of water up my nose to the brain! Oh well, still had fun even though freezing and full of water!

After all this, Nate ended the day bungee jumping!! What a crazy guy. The jump was 490 ft (yikes!) I got nervous just watching. That tiny spec on the bottom is Nate!