We awoke on our second full day in Monteverde (Wednesday, April 30, 2014) without any plans. Our hostel had a list of top things to do in Monteverde. One of the things was "climb the ficus" which had a note saying that it was free. Having spent quite a bit of money zip lining the day before, we decided to climb it, even though we weren't quite sure what a ficus was or where to find said ficus. After consulting with some brochures and maps, we discovered that it was a tree and we thought we knew where it was. After a long uphill hike, the maps led us to a small path leading into a forest.
The path even had a helpful sign!
Our best guess was that this sign had at one point said "FICUS" so we headed into the rainforest. We weren't exactly sure what a ficus tree looked like, but we suspected it would be quite large. After only a few meters, we came across a large tree with complicated looking roots.
This tree was definitely huge but all the branches were quite high and there didn't appear to be any way to climb it. We kept waking. There were several other similar trees on the path. All were very large and definitely not climbable. We soon reached the end of the path, disappointed to have not found the infamous ficus tree we had heard we could climb.
Hugh said that he wasn't leaving without climbing at least one tree, so we headed back to one of the earlier trees and tried to climb it. The bark was quite smooth and there were no branches to hold onto, so climbing was unsuccessful. We tried a different side of the tree and Hugh thought he could climb through a hole in the side of the tree. As much as it seemed like a bad idea to go inside the tree, I helped him through. He fit inside!
As soon as he got inside, he shouted "Holy shit, this is amazing! You have to see this! Come inside!" I was skeptical that the tree could even for one person inside, so I was especially skeptical that it could fit two, but Hugh assured me that there was plenty of space for both of us. I climbed inside and saw the interior of the tree. It was completely hollow!
We managed to climb about 30 meters up the tree on the inside.
Can you find Hugh at the top of the tree?
We descended the first tree and went looking for other ficus trees. Some of them seemed to have other trees growing inside and we couldn't climb them. I found one tree that had two separate trunks that were about 20m apart and grew together into one trunk higher up.
This tree was especially large and it was as easy to climb as a ladder!
I made it very high up this tree in almost no time at all.
We climbed a few more trees and then went back to our hostel. It was nice to have a downhill walk on the return to our hostel!
The path even had a helpful sign!
Our best guess was that this sign had at one point said "FICUS" so we headed into the rainforest. We weren't exactly sure what a ficus tree looked like, but we suspected it would be quite large. After only a few meters, we came across a large tree with complicated looking roots.
This tree was definitely huge but all the branches were quite high and there didn't appear to be any way to climb it. We kept waking. There were several other similar trees on the path. All were very large and definitely not climbable. We soon reached the end of the path, disappointed to have not found the infamous ficus tree we had heard we could climb. Hugh said that he wasn't leaving without climbing at least one tree, so we headed back to one of the earlier trees and tried to climb it. The bark was quite smooth and there were no branches to hold onto, so climbing was unsuccessful. We tried a different side of the tree and Hugh thought he could climb through a hole in the side of the tree. As much as it seemed like a bad idea to go inside the tree, I helped him through. He fit inside!
As soon as he got inside, he shouted "Holy shit, this is amazing! You have to see this! Come inside!" I was skeptical that the tree could even for one person inside, so I was especially skeptical that it could fit two, but Hugh assured me that there was plenty of space for both of us. I climbed inside and saw the interior of the tree. It was completely hollow!
We managed to climb about 30 meters up the tree on the inside.
Can you find Hugh at the top of the tree?
We descended the first tree and went looking for other ficus trees. Some of them seemed to have other trees growing inside and we couldn't climb them. I found one tree that had two separate trunks that were about 20m apart and grew together into one trunk higher up.
This tree was especially large and it was as easy to climb as a ladder!
I made it very high up this tree in almost no time at all.
We climbed a few more trees and then went back to our hostel. It was nice to have a downhill walk on the return to our hostel!
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