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Published: February 7th 2018
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We left SJ at about 9:45am (ish) in our rental car to head out to Santa Elena in the Monteverde area. A lot of travel sites recommended renting a 4-wheel drive vehicle for getting around Costa Rica, so we did. A substantial Nissan Xterra that looked sufficiently roomy...until of course we brought our luggage out. After some Tetris-like manoeuvring (which involved sacrificing some leg room for extra trunk space) we got all our gear in and hit the road. It was here I noted that I also forgot the clip (3) to mount my iPhone. Sheesh. On our last trip, T et moi used a great offline navigation app to get around and are doing the same this time, but no clip means the navigator holds the phone for the driver the whole time.
With T at the helm, after less than two hours we were just short of 40km away from our destination - more than an hour ahead of what google maps directions had predicted (I printed directions as back up in case something happened to my phone - see how prepared I can be?). Our navigation app told us we would be there in no time. Nice.
Until we got off the paved road. Then holy shizzle. I’ve driven my fair share of country roads, gravel tracks and steep climbs but I have never been on such a mercilessly abused road. Now I know roads don’t technically *have* to be flat, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to make your car bounce. It took us just over an hour to climb over terrain that looked like the surface of Mars (if Mars had potholes and dust clouds) and around hairpin turns before we hit the relief of the paved roads of Santa Elena. So yes, you need to have 4-wheel drive. Like need it, need it. Also google maps was right...they apparently factor in “oh hells no!” road conditions in their time estimates.
First impression of the town is that it has a bit of a casual, hippy vibe to it. It’s a popular tourist spot because of the surrounding cloud forest. It’s popularity became evident when Evie astutely pointed that all of a sudden all the signs were also in English.
The temperature is cooler here than in SJ and there is a strong wind. We saw a local walking outside hermetically wrapped
in a parka (hood up) neck swathed in a scarf. On the Canada scale, it’s light jacket weather with no toque (or scarf) needed. Maybe you could get away with just a long sleeve shirt. You know, nice out.
After we checked into our hotel, we had a quick bite and were picked up for a coffee, sugar cane and chocolate plantation tour. Learning about coffee production was fascinating, but learning about cocoa may have put me off chocolate for good. The inside of the bean looks like an alien egg pod and there is an actual stage in processing called the “slime” (burf) phase. Even our guide said it was gross. Add to that an increasingly stinky (blearch) fermentation process (urgk) and you’ve got me off chocolate. A lovely day nonetheless!
Next up: hanging bridges and tarantulas ...
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