Trekking Around Monteverde: Travel guide style

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  Monteverde, Costa Rica
Friday, June 8, 2007

Last weekend I went to Monteverde with some Tico friends and we visited a fellow volunteer from my group that lives there.
 
Where we stayed:
Pension Santa Elena
The website is really nice looking, but the hostel doesn't even begin to do the professionalism of the site justice. They could use some of the money from advertising and marketing to cleaning up the hostel. I didn't think it was that dirty, but my fellow travelers didn't like the state of things. (We had been warned in advance about roaches, but that's not something you can escape in CR, and the br didn't smell as if it had been cleaned beforehand.) We had a private room, which was nice. For 3mil, I'm not going to complain.
 
Restaurants:
For the meals we DIDN'T cook...
Moon Shiva: Israeli food. So I'll own up the fact that I wanted to eat there, I suggested the place, and I lead us to our doom. Doom might be overstating things a bit.
We found 10% off coupons in a coupon book, and not knowing whether they were per plate or per bill, we took 4 along with us. We asked and it was per bill, so we only needed one. However, the waitress misunderstood and told us we couldn't take 40% off the bill. We replied that we understood. But after she left, we said that if we were that stupid, we would've brought ten coupons and eaten for free.
             The food was good, but definitely NOT worth the exorbitant price we paid, even with the 10% off. I also had an imported beer. When the waitress said that it was like Pilsen (a Tico brew), she was exactly right. I was disappointed, as I expected something exotic and new... We left disgruntled and complained about the place the rest of the trip.
 
Stella's Café: A café. Charming café with a huge dining area. It is decorated with paintings by Stella herself, although she, elusively, wasn't in the restaurant that Sunday morning. I ordered a slice of spinach and bacon quiche. Now THERE'S something I never thought I'd see in CR. It was pretty good. I preferred it to the cheese quiche someone else ordered. Afterwards, to satisfy our cravings, as the display of pastries and desserts were beckoning, we gave into Desire. We split 2 slices of chocolate cake a la mode. It definitely exceeded my expectations. The problem with CR desserts that are "American" dishes (brownies, choc cake, pie, cheesecake, etc) is that Tico substitutions are made and dishes RARELY taste as good as they look.   
 
Monteverde Restaurant: By the Monteverde company. They make milk products, but for some reason, only sell their cheeses country wide. The rest (dips, ice cream, deli meats, etc) is sold only through the factory and the restaurant in Monteverde. My macadamia milkshake was AMAZING. The best milkshake I've had in CR, quite possibly in my entire life...But since before CR, I wasn't much of a milkshake drinker, that's not really saying much. I was tempted by the cheesecake, but I refrained. It might've been good, it might've been an imitation of cheesecake, I'll never know...
 
What we did:
Get lost. Sort of.
Monteverde Reserve: Cloud-forest on the mountain. The guide at the entrance gave us a map and highlighted a trail for us. The problem, as my Tico friend complained, with Ticos is that they are never clear with directions and have mastered the art of pointing vaguely. So when the guide pointed "over there" to one of five trails, of course we took the wrong one. He came running after us, pointed vaguely to another and said "No, THAT one!" So we got off track within the first minute, big deal, we'd overcome this first bit of bad luck.
The trails were paved with bricks that were either never made to be walked on or were not filled correctly. Twisted ankle waiting to happen. And I certainly didn't want to go through THAT again. Actually, the bricks made the trek easy. Otherwise, we'd have been slipping though mud all the way up. Luckily it was a gorgeous day. And it didn't rain! Miracle of miracles!
On the way back, after the bridge, we somehow got turned around. And our compańera who was STARVING (we decided that the bag was too heavy and left the snacks in the car), consulted the map, said that our other compańera who was acting as a guide, was fired, and lead us out of the forest at top speed. We got to the car and devoured the apples and crackers we'd brought along.
 
Anyhow, I could continue writing about all the rest of my adventures on this trip, but sadly, my time is up and I've got to catch the bus. To sum up: I highly recommend a trip to Monteverde if you're ever in town and don't forget to stop at the Monteverde Restaurant!

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