We have made our way to the town of Santa Elena in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica.  I think you might all want to sit down before I share something with you.  Are you sitting?  Promise me?

OK, here goes.  We have hiked three days in a row.  Yes, hiked.  I even swapped my flip flops for real shoes two out of the three days.

I know, I know, the Schneiduks don’t hike, but in Monteverde we did.

OK, fine, I do have a minor confession — yesterday we rewarded ourselves with ice cream made at a local factory and today we rewarded ourselves with pizza.  But still, we hiked.  For six hours two days and for four and a half today.

Specifically, on Sunday we hiked around some hanging bridges and then walked back to our hotel.  On Monday, we hiked all around the Monteverde reserve and then back to our hotel.  And, today, we want to Curi Cancha reserve and walked back to our hotel.  Curi Cancha was our favorite (more diversity along the trails), but we enjoyed all three days.

We saw a ton of interesting flora and some interesting fauna as well.  Fortunately, we didn’t see any scary snakes (just one that was about the width of a piece of spaghetti).  Unfortunately, we didn’t see a quetzal (at least not one we could definitively identify) and, although we saw a ton of morpho butterflies they just won’t sit still for a photo.  But, we think we got some good photos nonetheless.