Exploring the Hanging Bridges of Monteverde, Costa Rica

For a small country, Costa Rica has a lot to offer tourists. Among the attractions is a visit to the town of Monteverde, famous for its spectacular cloud forest.

One of the most interested experiences in Monteverde is to walk on some Hanging Bridges. These are steel cable bridges suspended between hills, which allow you to safely walk across and into the canopy of the cloud forest.  A photo of one of these bridges was featured in last weekends One Clue Mystery photo (see below).  It was recognized by George G — great job, as always, George!

I’m not a big fan of sheer drops, but I was very comfortable traversing these bridges, stopping on them to look and take photographs. They shake a little but are caged on the sides and bottom and are very safe.  Even if they make you a little uneasy, it’s worth walking on them to give you such an interesting and unique perspective of the cloud forest.

There are several vendors offering Hanging Bridge experiences. We went to Sky Adventures, which has 6 hanging bridges featured in a two-loop circuit. This includes the longest hanging bridge in Costa Rica which is 774 feet (236 meters) long.

Sometimes the mountain mist may shroud the hills, but it was mostly sunny and clear during our visit.  That said, the weather in the area can change quickly and radically.

Costa Rica is home to over 400 bird species, so for birders the opportunity to share the canopy with them is not to be missed. If you’re lucky you’ll see other types of animals like monkeys and sloths, and of course lots of different trees and blooms. A lot of these things would be missed if you only hiked on the ground, so the treetop view is most helpful.

It takes several hours to walk the circuit, depending on how fast you hike and how much time you spend observing things. The trails are well marked and you really don’t need a guide to appreciate the experience, but if want to learn a lot about the cloud forest guides are available for hire.

Part of the fun of this walk was seeing all kinds of tropical flowers, some of which we could only appreciate from the elevated platform.  Take a look at some of these beauties:

And don’t just focus on the bridges.  You’ll never know what you might miss by not glancing down at the ground beneath your feet from time to time.