Cooling off in the Mountains
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
65
141
Trip End
Ongoing
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Monteverde,
Costa Rica
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Yeah it is travel with hangover day! We have to catch a 9am bus to Santa Cruz so we can catch 3 more buses on our way to Monte Verde. We are a little slow moving and have to run out of the hotel because we think our bus is coming. Luckily it is the wrong one and we can sit on the curb and relax. The next bus comes by says he can take us direct to Monte Verde and it is only $5 bucks each. Can this be true? We shall see.
The bus ride is hot and we all feel a bit under the weather but atleast we do not have to change buses 4 times. Around noon we get to a crossroads and the bus driver tells us we need to get off here and catch the next bus to Monte Verde because he is headed to San Jose. No problem it is early and we only have a two hour bus ride up the mountain left. We walk up the road and grab a seat at the bus stop. Kay and Jessie run into the little bar on the corner and ask when the next bus is. According to the barman it is not until 3:30 and yes it is only noon. We grab a slightly shaded seat and lay there sweating out alcohol in the noon day heat. After asking a few other people when the bus comes we are now thoroughly confused because we have been told every time possible. All we can do is sit there and wait.
And wait...and wait.
A bus finally arrives at 3pm and we head off into the cloud covered mountains. The ride through the mountains to Monteverde made me feel many different things along the way. Fear for my life looking over the edge of the road into the valley, exhilaration at looking over the edge of the road into the valley, excitement at seeing an incredibly beautiful cloud forest, more fear when we went into the clouds and it started to pore down rain, amazement at the incredible green countryside, pain from the back breaking roads and excitement at finally getting there after two hours and being in the cool mountain air.
Monteverde sits at about 4000 feet above sea level and the cool air is quite a contrast in temperature to heat of Tamarindo.
1 Kay in front of our hostel
We ended up at an amazing little hotel called sleepers sleep cheaper hostel. For $5 bucks a night per person we got a beautiful room with a view of the cloud forest, a gorgeous bathroom with all the hot water we could handle, beautifully tiled and clean building and a huge breakfast of eggs, granola, fruit, toast and coffee. This was the best deal of the trip so far. If you end up in this town stay here. It is also half the price of the local hostels.We went for a hike on the trail called Cerra Amigos. The word Cerra means hill but this was no hill that I have ever hiked. We first had to walk up hill through town for 45 minutes just to get to the trail head and then it was one hour up some steep inclines the rest of the way. Despite the effort needed to climb it the trail was still good in that it was free and we saw lots of bright blue Morpho butterflies.We started in warm weather and ended up in the clouds with mist blowing on us like we were heads of lettuce in the veggie aisle at the supermarket. It felt wonderful!
We were so beat that we took a nap an chilled the rest of the afternoon.
The next day we went on a zip line canopy tour with 100% adrenaline adventures. This was incredible! They have 16 lines, a repelling line, and a Tarzan swing. The whole adventure took over 3 hours and was a lot of fun. (The student rate is $27 bucks and if you stay at sleepers Ronnie, the owner, will give you that rate even if you are not a student) The first few zip lines were short and easy but they quickly got faster and longer.
Amigos on Amigos Hike
The last one is 1500 feet long and over 250 feet in the air. You zip across the valley with incredible views all around you. I felt like I was flying! On the Tarzan swing you climb a 3 story scaffold unit and they strap you into a set of ropes and...you jump off! You swing back and forth just like Tarzan. Again felt like I was flying and as soon as I got off I wanted to do it again. The funniest part is they stop you by throwing an inner tube around you to stop you from swinging forward. It is sort of like those cables on aircraft carries that stop jets when they land. For the repel they are in control and drop you in so fast that your stomach is in your mouth. Its not a far drop though and it is over in a few seconds. Later that day we were going to go on a night walk but some thunder storms rolled into the valley and we had to cancel. We were able to sit in the lounge area and watch the clouds and the rain while having some tea and reading. The nights cooled down so much that you needed a blanket on you. This created an excellent sleeping environment and I got some of the best nights sleep of the trip. The other cool thing about the hostel is they had a kitchen and we were able to cook every meal there which allowed us to eat a little healthier and save a little money to.
On our last day we were up at 5:30 in order to catch the 6:30 am bus to San Jose.
Cheers
Frank
