Nicaragua to Costa Rica
Trip Start
Dec 03, 2007
1
12
29
Trip End
Mar 29, 2008
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Monteverde,
Costa Rica
Sunday, December 30, 2007
We left our cottage on Lake Ometepe and took a 40 minute shuttle bus ride through jungles and fields to the docks where we caught a proper passenger ferry. What a difference! We cruised the lake and enjoyed the beautiful views from the top deck. An interesting man entertained us by catching seagulls that flew beside the boat, with his bare hands, and then carefully banded the birds with plastic bands like they used in the hospital. Then he threw them up in the air to join their friends. Pretty neat.
Once off the boat, we took a bus to the border. It was extremely hot outside and we joined a line of at least a hundred people, all waiting to be allowed to leave Nicaragua. After 2 hours, we were ready to get into the line to enter Costa Rica. It was a little shorter but still quite a process. When we got to the front of the line, our passports were taken and stamped within two seconds of us handing it to the customs man. Nothing was checked. We were in and out.
A shuttle bus was waiting to take us to our hotel in the Monteverde mountains. During the remainder of our 12 hour trip, we bumped and thumped over a long, rutted dirt road through the mountains. It was relentless but the views were breathtaking. I was happy that Chris was not driving so he could enjoy the sights as much as I did. Finally we arrived at our chalet like hotel high in the mountains where it was extremely windy and cold with a fantastic view.
all kinds of flora
Our hotel had a specail dinner ready for us and a little dance show afterwards. Chris and I were invited to put on the traditional costumes and dance a Toro dance. We were silly but had fun.We spent two days in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Cloud forest is like the rainforest but most of the moisture comes from condensation left by the nearly constant cloud cover that covers the tops of many of the mountains, not from falling rain. The Monteverde reserve covers 1600 hectares of forest and has over 2000 species of plants, 320 birds and 100 different mammals in this small area. We were able to get a guide to take us on a nature walk through a section of the reserve. If we had been on our own, we would never have spotted the 3 Resplendent Quetzal birds that we saw, one of the most beautiful and elusive birds in the world. How lucky were we! We also saw a fat millipede type creature that apparently shoots a cyanide like poison when scared. Chris had already taken a photo of it for Caitlin when we learned this fact.
In the afternoon we went to another reserve where we were able to walk on a series of suspension bridges through the jungle canopy. It gave us a view of the ecosystem from the top and once again was very beautiful. Some of the other people on our tour went zip lining and had a great time swinging through the trees.
New Year´s Eve was spent in a nice restaurant in Monte Verde. Sea Bass was the fish of choice served with vegetables and potatoes. The younger people went out bar hopping to meet the new year, but we went home to bed early, after our busy day walking in the forests. We knew that we had to be up early the next morning, bright eyed and bushytailed, ready to head off to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano.
P.S. I forgot to tell you about leaving one of our backpacks on a bus in Leon. As soon as we realized it had been left behind, Chris and 2 women took off after the bus and our guide, Susie
grabbed a cab to waylay the bus. A random guy on a motorcycle offered to cut off the bus so he speeded ahead too. Chris caught up to the bus first (everyone was impressed with his running ability through the crowded Leon streets) and when he got on it the ladies, who we had had a wonderful conversation with, were protecting it. We think that they had convinced the driver to go back to the hotel to return it to us! It was great.
Comments
Happy New year!!
We are back from our cottage in Haliburton and loved it!! Great winter holiday. Just catching up on some of your blogs..will need to finish them tomorrow.
Sounds so wonderful!!! Glad you got your backpack back and Chirs is really fit!!!
Cheers, Franki.