Mimi | Monteverde Ziplines & Canopy Hanging Bridges April 29, 2011

(and no, this is NOT me but approximates what I experienced today)

Can I start this entry with the observation that Costa Rican mosquitoes are louder than Minnesota ones? My first night in Costa Rica and I was awoken at 3:08am (yes, I looked!) by the incessant unrelenting high pitched whine close to my ear…. And through a pair of ear plugs no less!

Canopy ziplining was pretty cool – especially the ones where you are suspended a hundred feet over the canopy line. I do think the advertising is misleading – they always show a girl holding on and looking down over the canopy as though she’s slowing her speed, stopping to gaze at the vista out yonder. Reality?? – once you’re strapped in and you let go, ain’t no stopping… the idea of a “controlled speed” zipline experience is a complete myth – your speed is a function of the line’s incline, your takeoff push and your body weight – bigger people go faster and smaller people (like me) sometimes lose momentum and get stuck dangling a couple of feet away from the platform, particularly if you try to slow your speed. Then you get the privilege of amusing the rest of the group by having to go hand over hand across the line until you get to the platform. In all, we did 13 different lines – some of the shorter ones were 300 feet or so but there were about 4 spectacular ones where the line was suspended clear over the canopy - once you got started, you moved at a terrifying speed with the valley that you are crossing blurring by. One line was almost 1/3 of a mile and the final one we did was 1000 meters or a little over ½ a mile. Ok, I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to swim a half mile but it’s terrifying when halfway in, the wind picks up and you start to sway side to side dangling hundreds of feet with nothing below your feet – and there’s not a thing you can do it except hope your speed is enough to get you to the platform (actually on this long one, they made people pair up to get enough weight to create the momentum)

After the zipline I opted for a 3 mile walk of the hanging bridges This is much more like a nature hike and is in the canopy itself although these bridges do traverse different sections of the cloud forest. The only thing I regretted was having missed the guided naturalist tour – they only go out about 3 times a day so I walked some other folks. We spotted a couple of cool birds and butterflies but it’s hard to know what you’re looking for.

As I’m walking for 90 minutes up and down these trails, I got to thinking about the 11 Quakers from Alabama who moved to this area in the 1950s and purchased 3000 acres due to their beliefs about the military as well as the fact that Costa Rica had abolished their army – what must they thought of this Valley a place to settle in and given the ordeal in the 21^st century to get here, what it must have been like to settle here. Evidently, they started dairy farming and it became one of the big businesses here – although given the state of the cows, I wonder how prolific their milk production could be.

Night walk later tonight – hopefully will spot some creatures of the night….

Lisa | Packing

Minnesota tan meets Cost Rica summer

Mimi | The Bumpy Road to Monteverde April 28, 2011

Ok, I have a ton to learn about positioning photos and stuff on this but for now, I thought it would be more expedient to just load my photos and figure out the editing for another time....

Dadadadada…thumpa.. thumpa….I hope my teeth and fillings are intact after a bone jarring ride to Monteverde. Good news – my shuttle actually came 45 minutes early and the other couple was ready to go. We drive through downtown Liberia – a typical medium sized town with all the trappings of North America – MacDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway…. Sigh, you just can’t get away from it. Stopped to pick up 2 other guys and proceeded to drive the Pan American Highway. So the 10 seater van was nice and roomy with just 5 of us and the driver – Thailand bus nightmare averted…..

90 minutes in, the shuttle pulls off at a rest stop and we’re told that we’d take a 10-15 minute break. I took off to wander around a bit. What the heck? Are those bits of orange squishy things actually mangos? Everywhere I look, there’s ripe fallen mangos and the occasional big thud as another ripe mango hits the tin roof of the little coffee/snack stand and rolls to the ground. Ripe, luscious mangos literally raining down over me – you know, the ones that cost a buck or more at Target. I bend down and turn them over gingerly to see if I can find one that hasn’t split the skin from falling – peeled it and if you think you’ve had good mangos, you ain’t tasted nothing yet until one rains down on you a minute before you bite into it. Wow … wow…. wow…..

Turns out this stop is a “shuttle bus hub” – 6 of these mini-buses parked alongside disgorging passengers and drivers sorting out luggage – a bus isheading to San Jose, another to Arenal and so on. Pretty slick system. The San Jose bus was packed to the brim but I headed to Monteverde with just 2 Canadian guys in our 10 seater, leaving me to spread out comfortably… or at least for the first 30 minutes. As we steadily climbed into the mountain valley on a narrow road winding around hairpin turn after turn, the road suddenly gave way with a thud to what was now an unpaved road with rocks – this road may have been paved at some point but gave up the asphalt for the rock foundation a while ago. We literally jostled along for another hour going up and down, up and down perched precariously on the edge of a deep drop. This ride made the “unpaved road to nowhere” in Manado, Indonesia look tame. Here and there a random house stood with horses and cattle dotting the valley. I’m thinking that this cloud forest thing had better be worth this jarring ride – and thank goodness I don’t have to make the return trip on these roads as I’m supposed to take a “taxi – boat – taxi” combo across Lake Arenal to get to the volcano on Saturday. But who knows – could the road to get to the boat be worse than this?

Random observation: clearly dry season with brown fields and bone dry riverbeds. Emaciated cows standing in the brutal sun forelornly picking at whatever fresh grass there possibly could be left in their pastures – these aren’t any corn fed cattle you see driving through the fields of Minnesota, that’s for sure. Makes me swear off any local beef for the trip. Oddly, in between these dry pastures are green pastures of what looks like, yes, rice paddies. And yep, confirmed by seeing those steel grain silos in a small town that said “Arroz”. Strange – doesn’t rice need tons of rain?

At last, we pull into the town of Santa Elena – base camp for Monteverde. My bus stops - I step out and have to stifle a laugh… if there was a stereotypical backpacker lodge, this would have to be it. Unshaven guys with tattoos up the length of their leg with Birkenstocks paging through their Lonely Planet Costa Rica book with girls with Rastarfarian dreadlocks wearing hiking boots with black socks smelling strongly of patchouli. No wonder the driver gave me a look when I said I was going to the “Pension Santa Elena” ! Ok, it’s a bit on the other spectrum from the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore of the Empire in Brunei. The young man leads me through the dimly lit communal kitchen with the sign on the refrigerator warning people not to take other people’s food and a young man is eating his concoction of penne pasta from the pot. Actually, for 20 bucks a night, I can’t complain - I get a private room with a bathroom. The double bed has a duvet and what looks to be fresh sheets and there is running hot water – a bonus!

Off to explore and figure out where to eat. The “town” is an odd triangular shape - each side about 75-100 meters in length with a couple of desultory souvenir shops, a myriad of tour desks and a few places to eat lining each street plus the requisite town supermarket and pharmacy. The restaurants look deserted - I know high season Is winding down and it’s only 6:30pm here but where are people eating? I find a place slightly off the “triangle” where I spot about 8 tables with people, 2 of which looked to be locals. Menu was full of the basic sandwiches and pasta but they also had the local “casado” plate consisting of rice & beans with a choice of meat. Got a yummy watermelon shake and a casado with grilled fish. . I forgot to take a picture of it but believe me, the fish was deliciously fresh although the side veggies of frozen mixed peas, carrots and something else left something to be desired.

Zipline and canopy tour at 8am tomorrow. Hope the weather is nice as it’s drizzling a bit right now. And yes, it is much cooler than the 95 degrees I experienced stepping off the plane a few short hours ago.

Mimi | In Costa Rica At Last - Let The Adventure Begin!

April 28, 2011 at 1:30pm local time. My very first blog entry…. I’m coming to you from the bar of the Hilton Garden Inn in Liberia, Costa Rica. Travel for the day is halfway over and the adventure begins!

3am wake up stinks! However, unlike other times I’ve traveled, I was able to get almost 7 (!) hours of sleep – yes, that does mean I went to bed at 8am…..didn’t have to stay up into the wee hours checking work email and rushing like a madwoman like I usually do.

Smooth check in Minneapolis – rumpled travelers stifling a yawn as we shuffle along …. in almost no time, I settle into my seat and promptly manage to fall asleep again. Transfer in Atlanta with just enough time to grab a coffee and find my seat. Played the “I hope that big fat guy in the wife beater shirt with hair poking out of his neck and ridiculous straw hat doesn’t sit next to me for the next 4 hours” game and breathed a sigh of relief when doors closed and realized I won the middle seat lottery – yesssssss! An empty middle seat all the way to Costa Rica. After always being relegated to the middle seat, wedged in between squirmy Kai and the broad-shouldered, knees touching the seat in front of him Dan, I took the opportunity to relax in my comfy seat. Taxiing in, caught a glimpse of the cloud covered mountains that I’m going to be bumping along on en route to Monteverde this afternoon/evening.

Plane taxied to a corrugated tin shack airport that clearly was a regional local airport until very recently – seems hardly big enough to process the hundreds of thousands of travelers passing through. Stepping off the plane, I was assaulted by hot, humid air and the strong sun immediately started rivulets of sweat pouring down my back, trapped between the straps of my backpack - pretty different from this morning’s sleety freezy slush. The airport reminded me of the Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic although probably about 1/3 of the size - corrugated rusty tin roof, industrial sized fans slowly swirling the hot air while we waited in line to have our passports stamped. Both immigration and the wait for luggage were quick – getting off the plane to collecting luggage took about 20 minutes – probably faster than in Minneapolis and clearing immigration to boot.

Arrival area outside the airport - predictably chaotic and noisy – hordes of hopefully looking people with placards showing names of travelers/ hotels and taxi drivers in search of a fare crowded around, kept at bay by a chain and 3 policemen who kept motioning the particularly aggressive taxi drivers away. A lamb led to slaughter, I endured placards waved in front of me and a gauntlet of “hey lady, need a taxi”, “I go where you want cheap”, and stumbled out of the jostling crowd, craning my neck to catch a glimpse of the Hilton shuttle to catch my bus to Monteverde . I wonder what Lisa will think of this as she emerges off the plane on Sunday…..

What the heck? I’ve got plenty of time to spare….but I have absolutely no idea whether there is a hotel shuttle let alone if I’m in the right place for it. I wheel across the street where shuttles were parked – hmmm…. no shuttle. Found a fatherly looking policia who was nice enough to call on his walkie talkie back to the tourist desk and explained to me in muy rapido Espanol that el autobus would be coming every 15 minutes – at least that was the bit that I caught. Hopefully by the end of this trip, I’ll catch more than 20% of a conversation.

Whew …. shuttle bus finally swings around and I board for the 5 minute ride. The Hilton must be used to people using the property as a pickup point as the reception desk didn’t bat an eye as I stride in to find the restaurant to cool off and wait the 2 ½ hours. A group of tattooed kids with well worn backpacks clustered in the lobby slumped over sleeping or watching CNN, obviously waiting for transportation to their next destination. Sitting at the bar, ordered my first Costa Rican beer – a local Imperial beer with a Germanic looking eagle/bird logo and colors to match and the words “La Cerveza de Costa Rica”. Bienvenidos a Costa Rica and adventures! Full from my sumptuous lunch of takeout sushi on the flight but ordered ceviche so the alcohol wouldn’t go to my head within the first 3 sips. Wow !!! Firm bite sized chunks of raw fish sublimely marinated in lime juice and onions served with crackers hit the spot. My body is finally cooling down. Time to organize my backpack a little bit for the next part of my travels….. Sure hope the transport shows up at 3:15pm and beats the 6 seater sardine can minibus with 9 crammed travelers that we took out of Thailand across to Malaysia after the airport riots.

4 1/2 days to go

Quick post to see if my email notifications are working: 
Only 4 1/2 days until I leave for Costa Rica to meet Mimi for a week of fun in the sun!  I'm thrilled to leave the rain, cold, snow and wretchedness that has been spring in Minnesota this year.  Though I'm not sure I'm ready for 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity in Costa Rica...  But my suitcase is only halfway packed, lots more to do!