Leg One: Monteverde
Day One
We took a red-eye to Atlanta so we were able to get to Liberia Costa Rica by noon. We were exhausted (I slept, maybe, one hour on the plane) but it was so worth being able to have nearly a full day there our first day. We initially had planned on renting a car but, by happenstance, found a travel agent specializing in Costa Rica travel who lived only an hour away from us. Being able to meet him in person put our mind at ease--it's always nice to have a face to go with a name in case something goes wrong. Changing our plans from 'on a whim' to 'very structured' made this trip 100% better than it would have been otherwise--I am absolutely positive of that. Because of this, instead of having a rental car, we had drivers the entire time. I had heard that roads down there are bad but I really had no idea how bad 'bad' was. I am grateful that someone else was navigating.
On our way to our first destination--Monteverde--we stopped for some lunch and the driver said there were some Macaws up in a tree. I looked up and this is what I saw:
No, this was not a sanctuary. This was just an off the road diner. What a most excellent way to start our trip!
After we got off the 'interstate', i.e. 2-lane highway with potholes, we took a two-hour dirt road up to the small town of Santa Elena. Our driver joked with us that dirt roads in Costa Rica are called 'Costa Rican Massages!' As we climbed into the mountains, this was our view of the Nicoya peninsula below. It was absolutely breathtaking!
Our travel agent had sort of apologized for our first hotel, telling us to keep an 'open mind.' We were blown away! Sure, it wasn't the Marriott but, in some ways, it was even better! We had a cabin all to ourselves tucked back in a grove of citrus trees. Traveling during rainy season it meant that it rained every afternoon and the sound of rain on the roof of this cabin was heavenly as I took my afternoon nap. We honestly would have been happy staying here the entire trip.
Our first nap was more like our missed night's sleep and we almost slept through our first tour: a night hike through a local cloud forest. I found out just how deathly afraid of snakes S was a few days before we went: a coworker of mine had gotten back from Costa Rica the Monday before we left and she had shown me pictures of pit vipers hanging from trees at night. When I told S this he had a look on his face that said he was ready to cancel our vacation! We met our guide, Guliano, at dusk. Guliano would continue to be our personal guide for the duration of the Monteverde portion of our trip. He was the perfect introduction to our Costa Rican experience. If you look up Costa Rica and Naturalist on Google image, you will probably find his picture. The man knows everything, and I mean Everything about Costa Rica wildlife. Incidentally, S did really well on the night hike. We saw more bugs than I would have cared to have seen, but we also saw some really rare birds asleep, some rodents, frogs and, of course, pit vipers:
It's hard to tell in the picture, but the snake is actually in striking position and will remain like this for days until an unlucky rodent crosses it's path.
Day Two
The next morning began our sequence of 6 a.m. rises. Mind you I'm used to getting up at 9. I thought it would be near impossible but, with the sun consistently rising at 6 and setting at 6--and with my consistent 2 hour afternoon naps--I had more than enough sleep.
We met Guliano in Monteverde Cloud Reserve to do the Hanging Bridge Tour. In Monteverde you have the wet cloud forests and the dry cloud forests. This morning was a tour of a wet cloud forest. They let us into the park a good hour before anyone else so it was just the 3 of us walking above the trees.
Our tour was 4 hours long and, though I was tired enough during some points to fall asleep walking (wish I was joking), it was the fastest 4 hour hike of my life. Guliano is a wealth of knowledge and he was noticing things that neither S nor I would have even thought to look for. I have a million pictures. If you're ever over to our house sometime, just ask to look at our scrapbook. This will be motivation for me to get it done.
After the tour it was time for our zip-line tour. The zip-line runs above the hanging bridges so it is essentially the same park from a much, much different perspective. This would be the first of many times this trip I would have to put on a helmet. I wondered where the body armor was.
No exaggeration: the entire zip-line tour took about 2 hours. We probably rode on close to 5 miles of zip-line cables. The last one was nearly half a mile long: so long that it required S and I to go together just so we would make it to the end!
There was also a Tarzan Swing. Look up Costa Rica Tarzan Swing because I am not putting those pictures and video up on a public blog. I'm afraid the picture will end up as a meme. I've done a zip-line once in my life at Snowbird, UT and realized after this trip that there are probably no ziplines in the world that compare to the ones in Costa Rica. They are, simply put, amazing.
Day Three
The next morning was our hike in Curi-Cancha wildlife refuge. This awesome forest is a dry cloud forest just outside the town of Monteverde. Guliano kept telling us we would be able to tell the difference and I was really surprised that, just 10 miles over the continental-divide was a tropical rain forest while, over here, it really was relatively dry. The picture below shows the enormity of the jungle plants of Costa Rica. That's an aloe. Before this trip the only aloe I had seen fits comfortably on the windowsill of my mom's kitchen.
Guliano pointed out these blackberries and said that this is what they are really supposed to look like and that the ones we buy in grocery stores are anomalies. He said we could taste one. If I had been in the States I think I would have hesitated but something about this trip allowed me to let go of all my inhibitions (and possibly my common sense too.) So I ate one. And it was delicious. And I didn't get sick.
In all of the reading I did preparing for this trip, I kept hearing about a bird called the Resplendent Quetzal for which people will literally travel thousands of miles to just catch a glimpse. We actually found a sleeping one on our nighthike (Guliano said he hadn't seen a sleeping one in 15 years--I should have known we were lucky) so I figured it was okay if we didn't see anymore. We ended up seeing 4 more on this hike! There is a lot of historical significance involving these birds which I won't go into here, but if you have the time you really should look it up.
Possibly my favorite part of the park was the hummingbird tree. The naturalists have hung hummingbird feeders on this tree and it literally draws hundreds of hummingbirds to it. Imagine the sound of a hummingbird amplified. It is crazy! It was a good time to test the 'action mode' on my camera.
Our trip to Costa Rica would have seemed incomplete without spotting at least one monkey on our visit--supposedly the country is crawling with them. The day before we had heard howler monkeys (and even, um, smelled them) but hadn't seen one. As this hike was nearing the end I was starting to feel discouraged that we hadn't seen any when suddenly there was a lot of commotion in the trees above us. Sure enough, a pack (group? herd?) of spider monkeys was making its way in the canopy above us. It was SO AWESOME! Even better: apparently howler monkeys and spider monkeys are mortal enemies of each other, and Guliano does a mean howler monkey impression. The spider monkeys followed us down the trail and started throwing avocado seeds at us! No joke! Even with a great camera, this was the best picture I got of a monkey. It was at this point I realized I need to invest in a higher power lens.
If I will take anything away from our 3 hikes with Guliano it is the difference between epiphytes and parasites. Epiphytes are plants that will grow on a tree and not harm it in any way. Parasitic plants grow on trees but end up depleting it of all the nutrients, causing the tree to eventually die. The biggest parasite in Monteverde cloud forests? Mistletoe! Wierd, huh? Anyway, there is an epiphyte called a strangler fig that will start off in the tree tops, send down roots around a large tree, and end up growing all the way around it (such as in the picture below.) Eventually the tree inside dies so these giant strangler fig trees are actually hollow. I don't get how this doesn't make them parasites.
I think our favorite part of our stay in Monteverde was the town of Santa Elena. What an awesome town! I really feel like we experienced the true Costa Rican culture here. They didn't care how crappy my spanish was--they just wanted to help me learn. We would walk all over town after dark and never once did I feel like I was in any sort of danger. I could seriously see myself living there the rest of my life and being perfectly happy.
I do wish I could say that the Costa Rican food was amazing but, honestly, I was/am so sick of rice and beans halfway through our trip. They eat the same Casado meal breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Day one it was a novelty. Day 5 all I wanted was a hamburger. However, there was this little hole-in-the-wall taco shop in Santa Elena called, what else, 'Taco Taco' that had the Best tacos I've ever had. Tacos al pastor. Grilled pineapple and pork. Eat your heart out Cafe Rio.
Another thing I loved were the pets. I know this seems weird seeing that I have a cat at home that, sadly, sometimes I forget exists. But the animals down here are somehow cooler, I guess. (Sorry Billy.) The dogs roam the streets of town. They all have collars and are all very clean. And all very friendly. This is the dog at Taco Taco that made me want to get a dog when we got back home.
Here's the cone-head dog that was a resident at the hotel we stayed at. I wanted to take a picture of him before we left but I couldn't find him at the hotel. Then, on our way out of town, there he was walking down the street in front of Taco Taco.
This is the resident cat at the hotel we stayed at. It was off season--I swear we were one of 3 couples there--so at night we would go lounge on the lawns and kitty would come snuggle up to us. Again, sorry Billy.
The coolest part about being in Santa Elena when we were was that it was Costa Rica's Independence Day (independence from Spain--all Central American countries have the same independence day.) We were eating in a treehouse (really) when we heard sirens. When we went to check it out we discovered a parade going down the mainstreet of Santa Elena. The town just purchased a new firetruck which is their pride and joy. Scott could also easily live here. Behind the firetruck was the entire town. I mean it: we were probably the only people actually watching the parade! Each family had made a lantern and was marching around the streets of town behind this new blinged-out fire truck. It was incredible.
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