Blogs from Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 11

On Monday, our first full day in Monteverde (as we had spent the previous day wrangling with a rental car company to get the right size vehicle - i.e. ginormous in spite of our attempts to "pack light" and driving up the insane road to Monteverde, then settling into the house and going grocery shopping) - we decided to make our introduction to the rainforest with the hanging bridges at Selvatura. Selvatura is essentially an all-purpose cloudforest theme park, with prices to match. They have hummingbird and butterfly gardens, zip lines, hanging bridges, a huge gift shop and a restaurant. We went only for the hanging bridges, but I could see that some people - coming to Monteverde for one night only - would be able to hit all the hot spots in this one place. ... read more

Finca de Magdalena was about a Km from where we got off the bus in Balgue. Dario went and hired a bike to ride to the farm and ask for availability and prices. He returned a while later... bloody and dirty!! He had managed to hit a rock coming down the hill and went over his handlebars. Nurse Jess had the task of cleaning and bandaging! The patient meanwhile got offered spirits from the locals and bought himself a beer to manage the pain. A farmer from Magdalena came and met us later on his horse to take our big bags up the hill so we didnt have to carry them all the way, which was luck,y, it was further than I thought! The farm was just what we needed, hammocks on a large deck looking ... read more

Last time we were talking I was planning on leaving Nosara. This did happen, eventually. I woke up at 6 am with the sound of the growling monkeys echoing in my ears, I rolled out of bed, I did my best at getting into my bathers and I walked out of the driveway leaving the rest of solo bueno fast asleep and dreaming. I stubbed my toe, again, and I fell over. No one was there to comfort me. It hurt. Even more than the second time. I now have an infected, black toe. The beach was absolutely magnificant on this particular morning. There really is nothing better than being on a deserted beach. Just you and the wide open sea. I think I counted two surfers, which for an early morning ocean swimmer is just ... read more

We arrived in Monteverde at around 11am. We had picked up the 6.30am bus from San Jose after spending a night in Gaudy's Backpackers in San Jose. While there I caused Del to go hungry by assuring her that a full foot long (I forget the metric measurements) sandwich in Subway would be too much for her and she was far better off with the small size. Big mistake. I didn't hear the end of it until I'd bought her a pain au chocolat, chocolat doughnut and coco flan from one of the most well stocked corner shops I've ever been in. The ride to Monteverde, which is high in the northern, coffee growing, mountains of Costa Rica, was bumpy, winding and long. It did offer good views though the higher we climbed. Happily, the public ... read more

Next we headed to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. From the bottom you cant see the top of these green mountains (monte verde) for the clouds. We drove up and up this very steep mountain until we were at the level of the clouds. The drive was pretty daunting as the roads were narrow, unpaved and on cliff edge the whole way. It is mistaken for a rainforest as it is so wet but we were informed this is actually condensation from the clouds. The views from the top were both overwhelming and spectacular. We went on a trek through the cloud forest where we spotted spider monkeys, plenty of insects and learned about many of the flora and fauna living there. By far the best part of this place and possibly the entire country was the ... read more