The Way to Monteverde

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[youtube=s79Wpx7bnKE]

Today was the day we did our 7-hour trek from La Fortuna to Santa Elena and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We started early in the morning by taking a van to Lake Arenal, Costa Rica's only lake at the base of the volcano. From there we boarded a bot that took us across the huge lake. From there we mounted up on horses for a 4-hour trek on horseback. the horseback ride was fun, but very painful after 4 hours. The last hour seemed to hurt my butt after every single bounce. Even worse, my horse liked to randomly start galloping, which was even more painful. Halfway through the journey, we stopped and had more fresh pineapple. I'm totally in love with the fruit here, I can't get enough!

After the horse ride, we still had about 2.5 hours left in our journey in vans. The ride was crazy, zigzagging back and forth up incredibly steep gravel roads full of potholes. There wasn't a guardrail in sight, so we had to trust our van driver to keep us from falling 3,000 feet to a fiery death...

The town of Santa Elena is the gateway for the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. The town itself is probably my favorite of the trip. Very simple, hilly, and full of cool things. I think my favorite place is the Treehouse Restaurant and Bar. There's a (real) tree growing right through the middle of the restaurant, and most of the restaurant has no roof, it's underneath the canopy of the tree. Yet another thing you wouldn't find in the US. They would just bulldoze the tree, and build an Applebee's over it.

The first video I have is of the horseback ride, and the other video is taken from the van ride up the mountain. Look how beautiful the surroundings are!

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Photos

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This was in La Fortuna. It was a very pretty church in the middle of the city. Costa Rica is about 75% Roman Catholic, so every town had a nice catholic church in the middle of the town.

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Our boats waiting at the edge of Lake Arenal.

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On the boat

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Here are the horses, waiting to be mounted.

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My horse's name was Coyote. Kinda wierd, eh?

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The next few pictures are from the ride.

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A picture of a part of my room in our hotel in Santa Elena, Historias Lodge. It was a cute, family-run place (with a hellion of a little kid that like to run around causing havoc. I'd hate to be that kid's teacher in school!) The rooms were a little damp and smelled of mold. I think this is the place that gave me the sinus problems.

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The outside of Historias Lodge.