The cloudforest of Monteverde

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Well my last night in Arenal was quite the time. After some cheap, cheap beer, we decided to head off to a Costa Rican club. Quite the atmosphere, with all the latin american tunes fused with some North American hip hop. Anyways, got to know an Arizona girl, Lindy, on the last day, and maybe one of these days I can convince the boys on a roadtrip through the west states and stop by.

Anyways, took off that afternoon on a great boat ride across Lake Arenal, the source of almost all of Costa Rica´s energy from wind and hydro-electricity. Then went on a hair-raising jeep ride up a mountainside, through thick clouds, into Santa Elena. It´s a quaint little touristy town, the base for exploring Monterverde and Santa Elena cloud forests reserves. I found a little $2 casado (chicken, rice, beans) joint that I would eat at another 3 times during my stay. Oddly enough, I bumped into two Americans who had just come from Santa Elena, and had forgot to return their keys at a plac called Eddy´s. So I brought em back, and got myself a private room for $6 a night! The next morning I was up super early again (??!!??!!) for a 5 hour hike through Santa Elena cloud forest. Although most of the hike was like treading through a river because of the rain buildup, the scenary was breathtaking. That afternoon I visited the serpentarium, watched 4 huge boa constricters eat about 8 little mice, pretty intense.

The bus ride down, bar none the worst drive of my life. It was super steep downhill, and on loose gravel. I was near the back of the bus, and every now and again we could feel the wheels kick out and the back spin out and slide to the side of the road. On top of that, we were moving super fast through thick clouds, the visibility was maybe about 2 meters. At one point, the driver decided to pass a truck. I was pretty sure these were my last moments, and my worries were legitimized when the driver picked up his cell phone as we were passing! Since the bus was a standard, he had one hand on the gearshift, one on his cell phone, and was guiding the bus around the corner with his knees. Just to recap that...downhill, thick clouds, passing on a corner, no hands on wheel, spinning out, talking on cell phone...not the greatest time of my life...but I lived, and I´m happy to be here writing about it!

Off to the east coast tommorow (I´m back in ugly old San Jose tonight). I´m putting pictures up right now, worry not.

Pura Vida

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Comments

[MoB]

worst drivers
Now we know why Costa Rica has one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world. They're outrageous drivers. Hang on! MoB