Cariblue

In the morning, I awoke to the sounds of birds telling me it was time to wake up. I found that in the middle of the night I must have become cold, because I had the sheet and blanket piled on top of me and tucked in around my sides. That was a surprise, as I did not anticipate feeling cold at all the entire time I visited. I rose quickly to go down to meet Alan, my guide, to try climbing the kapok tree. The system involves two ropes and two handles that grip the rope to use to pull yourself up higher. While it appeared to be a fairly easy exercise, by the time I reached the top, I was exhausted and wasn't quite sure I would have the strength to come down! The view from the top of the tree was gorgeous, and Alan shared with me about the species of birds, and yes, even ants, that they found around Selva Bananito. After taking my time descending, I pulled off a very sweaty helmet and decided to take a shower before breakfast. All the guests came together for breakfast, and lots of café con leche (coffee with milk) before deciding to head out for a horseback ride to the rainforest, with a brief hike and a zipline trip out to the canopy tower. A pit viper was camping out next to the zipline to the platform, all coiled and ready to strike at anything passing by that looked like dinner. I could barely see it at first, as its colors blended in with the dirt, but Alan had trained eyes and pointed it out to us. We zipped over to the platform and looked around in the canopy and in the ravine. Then we zipped back, and headed back to the lodge.

After a restful lunch break, we traveled back down the bumpy dirt road to head to Cariblue Resort on the Caribbean Coast. Upon arriving, we were met with a charming little town, with not much to it other than gorgeous beaches on one side of the road, and buildings on the other. Cariblue is such a fun place, with a nice pool with swim up bar, large common area with pool tables and board games, and thatched roof bungalows nestled into the vegetation around the property. Another traveler and I, Shane, met up for dinner and a thrilling board game before dinner. The food was fantastic! And we enjoyed some of the live reggae music playing that evening before turning in for the night.