Monteverde

So, I know this is long overdue, but at least it is getting up, right? Anyway, for our first weekend excursion, Jillian and I decided to go to Monteverde, a cloud forest just a few hours northwest of San Jose. We were originally supposed to be going with one of Jillian’s roommates but instead we ended up going with one of my friends from construction, Jackie.

The bus ride was amazingly long (despite the amazingly surreal scenery), but Ira Glass, Katniss Everdeen and I made it through just fine. When we got off the bus though, we quickly realized that we really had no idea where we were staying. Almost in direct answer to our question, a man named Brian approached us showing us a brochure of his hostel what was just up the hill. He told us that he had one room left that could comfortably fit three at only 6 dollars each per night. As is the case with most hostels, this included breakfast and a number of other things so we jumped at such a low offer.

When we arrived at the hostel, it was clear that he was not having us on either. The place was clean and orderly and was in fact full save our room. After we set our bags down, Brian was right there helping us decided what to do here and setting up most of it for us. We ended up getting a discount on our zip lining and on our entrance to the park all because of him.

Our Hostel. 

After getting all of that squared away, we followed yet another one of Brian’s recommendations and headed down to a little soda (the Costa Rican word for a restaurant serving local foods), at the base of the hill. The place was called Rico y Ticos and was absolutely delicious. Jillian got to try her first glass of green lemonade; Jackie, her first glass of watermelon juice; and I, my first glass of soursop. With our bellies bursting, we decided to hit up the grocery store and bought things for PB&J’s for lunch the next day which was one of the better decisions we have ever made.

Our respective drinks from dinner. 

The next morning, we got up bright and early and sat down to a breakfast of eggs, fruit and toast made in a waffle iron (I gave them 10 points for creativity because of this). From here, we moved out onto the porch, lunches in tow, and chilled in the hammocks while we waited for the shuttle to arrive. Once it finally came we all piled in and ended up facing the opposite direction you normally do in a car because of the rather inventive seating arrangement designed to maximize seating capacity. The ride was hilly, twisty and turny, but we made it there in once piece.

Hammocks outside our Hostel.

Rather than head into the Monteverde Park, we decided on the Santa Elena portion which is essentially the same park, just a different area. And after a quick discussion with the park ranger, we decided to take a 5k hike around the reserve to get the best glimpse of the forest. This too was one of the better decisions we have ever made. Although this park did not have a whole lot of wild live, it was nonetheless picturesque.

Beautiful Trees of the Santa Elena Nature Reserve

Yes, this is my banner photo. And yes, I did actually take it. 

It was amazing to walk through this forest because every now and again, there were sections like this that looked as though they were almost to perfect to be real. 

Walking through the forest.

These were the two main ways we got around in the forest. Sections of logs cut up and covered in chicken wire or wood and dirt stairs. 

Me, Jillian and Jackie. 

These trees are called walking trees. As they fall down, or overtake other trees, they put down roots that support their trunks. Thereby making it seem like they are walking along the forest floor. 

Jillian and Jackie looking up from a particularly steep portion of the trail. 

As is usually the case, I took far too many photos to include in this blog, but I didn't want you all to miss any of the cool things we saw. So I decided to try something new this time around: collages. This one is of all the flowers we saw while in the cloud forest. 

Collage of the different shots of the forest. Fun Fact: A cloud forest differs from a rain forest in that it is generally at a higher altitude and is therefore primary shrouded in a thick of low hanging clouds. As such, it does not receive nearly as much rain as a rain forest, but still exhibits many of the same species, characteristics, and biodiversity because of the large amount of moisture in the air. 

A little river we crossed over on our way. 

Root structure of one of the larger trees. 

The three quintessential hiking shoes: Chacos, Tennis Shoes and Keens. 

Cool Tree. 

Collage of some of the creepy, crawly critters we saw. 

Various shots of the forest floor

Collage of some of the strange and beautiful plants we saw on our walk

And still more cool trees.

 Humming bird nest. We had actually been hearing these little things all day, but thought they were really large insects instead of birds.

After the 3 hour hike, it was back down to the little visitor center/gift shop/cafeteria where we ate out lunch and only had to wait for a few minutes for our ride to arrive. Once we were back at the hostel, we decided to go looking for some of the various other things we’d heard were worth seeing.   The eventual consensus was to visit a small artisan co-op and a cheese factory which a nice old man at our hostel was no more than 3 kilometers away. He neglected to mention, however, that the walk to the place was almost entirely uphill.  It was all good though because it gave us the chance to see a little more of the area and some really amazing flowers.

Along the way, we saw all kinds of hotels, hostels and houses ranging from the very cheap to the very expensive. There were even quite a few resort-esque places, some that looked like they would have fit in Aspen or Park City.

Just one of the many neighborhoods we saw along the way. 

View of the beauitful mountains and grazing areas for cattle. 

Entrance to one of the resort-esque hotels. 

I feel like this one, in particular, belongs somewhere in the rocky mountains. 

Admittedly, there were several points along the way where we considered turning back because the walk was taking much longer that previously anticipated. But at one point in particular, we ran into this little guy:

This is Spot. He joined us about half way along our journey and stayed just slightly ahead or behind us the entire time. He actually lead us straight to the artisan co-op and the cheese factory and then mysteriously disappeared. As such, we decided that he must have been a spirit guide sent to ensure our safe passage to the valley of cured milk. 

While taking pictures of some of the flowers, I also spotted this little guy. 

In the end, with the help of our spirit guide, we made it to the co-op, which was a little disappointing, and to the cheese factory where we sampled some Gouda and ate some really wonderful ice cream. 

Main entrance into the cheese factory.

Apparently this brand is sold all over Costa Rica. 

The mist into which Spot disappeared, never to be seen again. 

Jackie and I enjoying our ice cream at the Monteverde Cheese Factory. 

On our way back, we ran into this sign and I just had to post it here in hopes that someone will be able to tell me what exactly an "Underground Night Electronic Party" is. 

By the time we got back, it had begun raining pretty heavily so we waited at our hostel for it to subside and then headed to one of the places Lonely Planet had recommended for dinner. It left all of us wanting and so we decided to go ahead and order a cheese pizza as well. Jackie and Jillian actually retrieved the pizza while I chilled at the hostel and read. Little did I know that I would miss so much on this one little pizza run… but suffice it to say that at one point while we were eating the pizza, we were all paralyzed with laughter at the thought of our parmesan being laced with cocaine.

After breakfast the next morning, we decided to buy our bus tickets home before heading off to do our zip lining. In the town, there was clearly some kind of event going on that involved a lot of running. In addition, there was some kind of religious celebration going on as well where in church goers had decorated the streets surrounding the main block of the street with beautiful natural artwork. It was because of these two things that we were not able to buy tickets for the 2:30 bus like we had been planning. So instead we decided to be routed through Puntarenas and then on to San Jose. It was an hour out of our way, but we really didn’t have much of a choice.

Just a few of the many natural pieces of artwork ringing the city block. 

 After the church service, we saw parishioners walking along the little path of murals in a seemingly ceremonial manner.

With our tickets in hand, we returned to the hostel and waited until our bus came to take us zip lining. When we first arrived, my heart started to sink when I saw three large tour busses parked in the parking lot. We eventually learned that only two of the three were unloading, but both of those busses were loaded with high school students. And even though we had to wait while each and every one of them got all harnessed up, fate dealt us a good hand and because we had opted to do the superman run, we got to go first.

Now, avid followers of this blog will know that I have already done this once in Thailand. And while I have fond memories of that experience, this was SO much better. The lines were longer, we went faster and I got to see so much more of the surrounding country. Some of the lines took a full 45 seconds to complete. It was actually on one of these that Jillian and I got stuck in the middle of the line because her pulley was not working properly. So there she and I were, dangling on a half inch thick steel wire, several hundred feet in the air. The guides eventually came and recued us, but not after trying in vain to fix Jillian’s pulley while she and I were swaying on the wind.

This was the beginning of one of the many extra long cables we did. This one went all the way across to the other side of the mountain. 

The another thing that was markedly different about this experience was the fact that we had to do a lot of hiking in between the platforms. Mind you, Jillian, Jackie and I are totally sore from our hike through the rainforest the day before so it was all we could do to keep up with the guides and not hold up the line.

Jackie, a little tuckered out from our intense hike. 

In addition to the zip lining, we got to do something called a Tarzan swing where you swung from a high platform straight into the canopy, just like Tarzan. Jillian was the first one in our group to go and watching her literally disappear over the edge of the platform was a little terrifying. But not nearly as terrifying as when the guide pushed me over the edge of the platform while Jillian was still getting un-attached from her harness on the platform 30 feet below me.

Jillian on one of the walk ways connecting the platforms. 

Our very last bit though was doing something called the Superman where instead of sitting down in the harness like you normally do, this harness suspends you from your back so it literally feels like you are flying with the entire world rushing past you. It was absolutely amazing.

Me, ready and raring to go on the Superman line. 

The Superman was the last line so we sat and ate our lunch while we waited for our bus to take us back to hostel. From there we made our way down to the grocery store and bought some food for the bus ride home. While on the bus, we ran into yet another spirit guide (this time in the form of an old white guy studying in Spanish) who was also trying to get to San Jose and told us how we could shave some more time off our trip by getting off at another stop and catching the bus there.

Apparently he knew what he was talking about because we made it back to San Jose totally safe and sound. And there you have it, the brief summation of our exciting weekend in Monteverde.