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.
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