Mistico Park Hanging Bridges: 14 Bridges, 2.5 Hours with a Local Guide

Mistico Park sits near Arenal and works as a private nature reserve, with the trails and the bridges built as one system. The walking comes to 3.1 kilometres and crosses 14 bridges, 6 of them suspended and the rest fixed. Arenal is in view from several points along the way. The walk takes about two and a half hours, which is slower than the distance suggests and deliberately so: the guides stop to find animals rather than march past them. Birds are the strong point here, the resident species and the migratory ones that pass through. What a guide adds on a trail like this is the finding. Much of what lives in a rainforest is quiet, still, and the same colour as the branch it is sitting on.