Blogs from Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 2

We started our trip up in the mountains, in the cloud forest at Monteverde. I had heard I could see nine species of hummingbirds in the cloud forest, and that was enough for me. Mom has never objected to a birding trip. There are a couple different roads up to Monteverde, which I didn’t bother to research. I grew up driving old logging roads in Washington and Idaho. However, I will say that parts of the road from Rancho Grande, labeled 606 on the map, are pretty rough and have some steep drop offs. I wouldn’t recommend it for people not used to unpaved mountain roads. On the way back down, we took 605 through Sarmiento and it was lovely. Mostly paved and with fewer drop offs, it has beautiful views of the Gulf of Nicoya ... read more

This morning we left the hotel at 7:00am to head to Monteverde Cloud Forest (a tropical rainforest). There is all kinds of plants, birds and mammals (sloth, monkey, ocelot, and pizote) that can be found in this rainforest. The drive took about 3.5 hours and the last 1-1.5 hours was uphill, curvy, bumpy (partly unpaved) road. The parking lot at the reserve was full, but the adventure tour company had room in their lot and were shuttling people the last kilometer to the reserve. The tickets were $22 for each adult. We started our walk towards the waterfall and It was a beautiful easy walk. We could hear so many different birds singing. This took around 45 minutes. We then headed towards the other side of the park and the suspension bridge over the cloud forest. ... read more

On Friday, April 27th, Rebecka and I were picked up by our shuttle to Monteverde at 8:20AM. First, we had 1 hour in the shuttle to the lake, then 45 minutes on the ferry (more a boat than a ferry), followed by a short 5 minutes hike to the next shuttle, and then 1h30 more in another shuttle to Monteverde. The shuttle was quite full, but it was ok and the landscape was beautiful. :-) The bus driver even stopped once to let us take pictures of a particularly beautiful spot. The road from the ferry to Monteverde reminded us a lot about Guatemala, the road being really bad and bumpy. ^_^ The bus driver let us out at the 100% Aventura park. That’s where we had booked the canopy tour. We arrived just in time ... read more

After a bone jarring drive, especially for those in the back seat, we reached Monteverde. The surprise here was that the weather battering the US had reached this far south and the winds were howling and clouds covering the mountains. The rain in the upper elevation was being blown down into the town and so, while you might be standing in sunshine, there was always a mist--and this is supposed to be the start of the dry season! Of course, we were hungry and so headed for the recommended Taco Taco and were treated to the best plate of tacos I have had. Then off to the lodge. After being given incorrect directions to our lodging, we stopped at a hotel and were provided with a detailed map which we would need to find the place. ... read more

This morning, after breakfast, the group headed to Don Juan Coffee Plantation to learn how Costa Rican coffee is produced. At the plantation, we discovered the difficult economics of growing coffee. Much work is involved but very little money is made in coffee production. During the coffee harvest from November to February, ripe coffee cherries are hand-picked. Each cherry contains about one to two coffee beans. Workers get paid based on the weight of coffee they pick. Most of the coffee pickers are from the neighbouring country Nicaragua, and receive minimal earnings for their hard labour. Furthermore, coffee farmers receive very little income to justify having a coffee plantation. Most of the money goes to the big corporations that buy the coffee and sell it for 3-4 dollars a cup. Farmers have to support themselves by ... read more