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Published: April 11th 2009
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I now know what it feels like to be inside a blender! As you can imagine - it wasnt a pleasant experience I was up for another long travel day to get to Monteverde. It was on a bus - on a ferry - on a bus - on another bus.....Then quick as a flash, I was dropped off in Monteverde. Monteverde is the complete opposite of Costa Rica's Pacific coastline. Set up in the hills in a cloud forest - it was nowhere near as warm as the coast during the day and cold & windy at night. The drive itself was on very dirty, very bumpy chalk roads - just like I thought it would have been like if I were to spend 4 hours being whirled around in a blender.
I got there a bit after 6pm and was immedately over-run with the usual hotel touts that hover around the bus stops. I refused most of them except one - who told me that he could get me a room for USD 5.00 - How could I resist that? - But first and foremost I had to make my way to the usual backpacker
lodge in to compare the cost of securing a bed in one of their first quality 'suites' (haha!!).
I trudged along - fully laden with my backpack, up & down the streets searching for a bed - feeling just like a turtle must feel like after being blended! I peered into one of the rooms at the local backpacker place and immediately ruled it out as I didnt particularly feel like sleeping on cardboard (mattress so thin - It would have been better for me to sleep on the floor. And all that for the price of USD 10.00). I went off in search of the USD 5.00 hotel - thinking to myself "Of course - This place would be better!!!" - as if!! but the sun was shining and the Gods were on my side....I managed to secure a double room with private bath for USD 10.00. It couldnt have been any better. The room was actually USD 20.00 per night - but after my (very few) complaints about the fact that I was told I would only pay USD 5.00 for a room blah blah blah - the guys were very nice, very cheeky and said what
the hell - take the double!! - I promptly stopped complaining! That night after wandering around the town, I went next door to the local soda - Essentially a local eatery with cheap local food for a meal of 'Bistek con encebollas' - steak with onions, veggies & rice (but still nowhere near as good as how my Mom makes it). Then it was off to bed in my little palace!!
Ride of my life Its been a while since I last had some guy wrap his legs around me while I was screaming....Lol!!! I know what you were thinking! Terrible how our minds work! But......The next day off I went on my very first Canopy Tour through the forest.......And it was terrifyingly fantastic.
14 zip lines hovering in the sky, above and through the trees - the longest being 1 kilometer long. What more could you want? Luckily for me - I didnt read too much about it - otherwise I probably would have chickened out as the tour also included a tarzan swing - Essentially, they push you off a platform and you swing through the air a few times, reaching the top of the
trees before they catch you; and a rappel - A sheer drop to the ground from a platform, a seated bungy (or the closest thing I will ever come to a bungy in this lifetime) - but nowhere near as scary!. Some of the rides required us to pair up with others, to help with the braking - hence my earlier comment - thankyouverymuch!. If ever you get to Monteverde - a ride surely not to be missed!!!
I stayed in Monteverde (really - Santa Elena) for a total of 3 nights - More than enough time, in fact too much time as far as I was concerned but it was just nice to stay put in the one place - A nice bed & a nice little eatery. On my last day - I decided to do a walk around the Santa Elena cloud forest through the hanging bridges. It was a pleasant enough walk - but nowhere near as exciting as the previous day's activity. I had a dim thought that I would be able to spot some animals on my journey, in the same way that I had done when I was in Rincón de la
Vieja - but like I said, it was a dim thought! because I didnt! - Not really. To do this justice, I would have needed to hire a personal guide with a giant binocular to point me in the right direction of where to look and whilst there were many groups of individuals on the bridges doing this - I didnt share the same deep desire and was just content to meander my way along over looking the forest. A treat for me - I did manage to get a glimpse of a hummingbird nest with a baby hummingbird, about an inch big - Oh so cute! Ever the tourist - I did the whole package, which included the butterfly gallery & hummingbird garden, however in hindsight, I dont think I would have done it all again (or even recommed the tour), especially for USD 37.00.
My thoughts on Monteverde? Set amidst the cloud forest - it is a small but nice town to get away from it all and be 'one with nature'. The fact that I stayed in Santa Elena - did dampen the whole 'one with nature' theme somewhat, but my budget didnt stretch far enough
for me to stay in the day spas & scandinavian type lodges set in the foothills of the Monteverde forest. Think USD 10.00 not USD 100.00..... being at one with nature didnt really mean a party town (not that I was looking for one) but given that it was predominantly a one street town (almost) it didnt leave me with much by way of exploration at night - excepting of course night time nature trails and the like.
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