Deliver me to Monteverde

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This February I decided to volunteer in Monteverde, Costa Rica but before I made my way there my brother and father came on down with me for a five day road trip. We headed out bright and early grabbing a flight from A.C. to Georgia and then continuing on down to San Jose, Costa Rica. Once there we picked up our car and headed off.

Driving in Costa Rica is an experience. There are basically no road signs, cars go flying by you, and some of the roads aren't paved. We grabbed our map and tried to make our way across to Manuel Antonio. Now it really isn't that easy to do and we got ourselves nice and turned around. But after a few hours of driving around and around we finally made our way to right outside Manuel Antonio National Park.

It had been a long day of traveling so we all grabbed dinner at the hotel and went back to our room to crash, tomorrow is going to be an early day.

This morning we woke up and headed out to the National Park. Driving up there was crazy, it seemed to be one way although cars were going both ways. People tried to get us to park super far away from the park but we ended up passing them and finding a spot nice and close.

We had to wait to get in, because they only allow a certain amount within the park and once our turn came we headed in on the 30 minute walk to the beach. Without a guide there was nobody to show us the hide outs, but I tried to remember what I had seen on the last visit. We did get to see a sloth and many different birds and towards the end we actually ran into a White-Tailed Deer.

Once we were at the beach we dove right into the water which was spectacular, even in February. We had brought snorkeling equipment and we all headed in. There weren't many fish, but we did see a handful some quite large others rather small. We spent a bit of time out there and then we came back to the beach where we were greeted by the White-Faced Capuchins that were trying to steal everyone's lunches.

We hung around on the beach for a bit watching them reek havoc and then we headed out on a hike. We took a different one than the one I had taken last time, but it was just as beautiful. I could have sworn I saw a shark from one of the view points, but maybe I was imagining things. We saw quite a few monkeys and raccoons along the way along with a few lizards, but eventually we made it back and headed to our hotel.

Here at the hotel we spent the rest of the evening hanging out by the pool. El Avion is where we had dinner, its a restaurant that is built around a plane. It is an actual US cargo plane from the 80's and although the food is nothing special the drinks are delicious and it is a pretty cool design.

Tomorrow we are heading to Monteverde so we are headed to bed early once again.

This morning we packed up and headed towards Monteverde were I will be spending the next two months. The drive was long but not nearly as long as the day before and we didn't get lost at all. We followed the coast up and then went over a bridge that had quite a few Crocodiles relaxing underneath. Eventually we made it to our second location which is really a beautiful location.

This afternoon we decided to head to Ecological Sanctuary to take a hike around. We took one that gave us some beautiful views of the mountains and all the forest around us. We didn't see much on our hike, but then again we weren't looking very hard. From there we headed to the waterfall where we hiked down to but didn't stay for long since the sun was going down.

We got some dinner and than watched some soccer and went to bed.

This morning we went around town looking for something exciting to do. We headed down to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve but it was rather expensive to get into so instead we stopped at the Hummingbird Garden right next door. It was fantastic, there were so many different species of hummingbirds flying around and we could get so amazingly close.

We grabbed some lunch after that at Johnny's Restaurant and then headed down to my future resident. We took our car down the dirt path that lead us to the Jardin de Mariposas. Here I met my boss and future co workers and also got to join on a tour to check out what exactly I would be doing. It is a beautiful place and I am excited to move in!!

After leaving the gardens we noticed a sign for an areal tram. We decided to take it, it brings around in basically a ski lift around the canopy. We didn't see to much but we did run into a Blue Crowned Motmot, which was really quite beautiful.

Dinner at the hotel was a splendid meal at the hotel. Each of us got an awesome dinner with delicious drinks but soon we headed to to our room to watch some more soccer and go to bed.

Time to move in to the Butterfly Garden. My dad, brother and I grabbed some breakfast and than packed up. I would be dropped off at the gardens and they would continue on home and that is exactly what happened. I came down to the gardens with my bag, moved into the kitchen and a new adventure begins!

"Make voyages! Attempt them...there's nothing else."~Tennessee Williams

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