I wanted to spend some time in the jungle. I suppose, in the back of my head, I had fantasies about monkeys and parrots and waterfalls, but having spent a bit of time in Costa Rica, I remembered that much of the jungle is bugs, bug bites, big scary bugs, and sketchy reptiles.

When we decided to ride the World´s Most Dangerous Road, we also decided to spend three days in Corioco. Corioco isn´t the deepest jungle, nor is it in the heart of the coca growing region, nor does it have a malarial risk. Seems like a good place. When we finished the ride, we were escorted to a facility that seemed to have little cabañas, lots of trees, and were given a)free beer, and b)a lecture on how to interact (or not) with the animals.

That´s when I realized that we were someplace very, very special.

For the record, the rules were that the animals could touch you, but you weren´t to touch them. This got fuzzy when you needed to shoo them away from your food, or when, after a couple of days, we started shooing them away from the new tourist´s food and even putting them away in thier cages. It eventually dissolved altogether for us when Andy removed some boa constrictor food (live kittens, sorry folks) from the boa cage, and returned them to their mother. And we got hugs from the monkeys when we left.

La Senda Verde is several things at once. It is a business, existing to provide end-of-ride services for all of Gravity´s bike rides. It does this very, very well. A pool, hot, clean showers, shampoo, soap, and towels, and of course free beer are all provided. In addition, the fabulous chef and his crew cook up a gigantic pasta buffet for the hungry tourists.

La Senda Verde is also an animal rescue shelter. Don Marcello and his wife Doña Vicky began to take in animals some time ago, and it has expanded to 14 monkeys, an ocelot, a south american bear (not on the premises!), a boa, 2 cohati (kind of like raccoons with really long noses), 2 tortoises, and an aviary of parrots, macaws, and other exotic birds. Not to mention 2 golden retreivers and a slew of house cats. They get calls every week asking them to take in more animals, and planning on expanding their efforts significantly in the next few months. A crew of extremely hard-working volunteers feed, water, walk, and love the animals, along with a dedicated team of locals. It´s clear that while no one is a vet, or an exotic animal rescue specialist, every person there is devoted to the animals.

And the animals, for their part, seem very happy. Because they were pets, they are mostly very social.

In one morning, I got cuddled by three different kind of monkeys, walked over by the cohati (an adult and a tiny baby), and held two macaws. And that was before breakfast. We decided to stay another night after that.

So, that was La Senda Verde. We spent most of our time cuddling with critters, or watching the squirrel monkeys play, or just enjoying the gorgeous surroundings. Andy´s lap became a battlefield for three squirrel monkeys and the red howler. I learned how to carry a huge, beautiful bird.

I am almost 100% sure that we will be back to spend some of our own time as volunteers for La Senda Verde.

By the way, the only way to get there is to be invited, with Gravity. Another reason they are a decent company!