Costa Rica Part 7

The plan was for us to do our transfer from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde by roads, and I was actually fairly happy not to be waiting for another plane. Right on time, our driver picked us up at our condo, and we went off in search of our last stop. The drive was fairly uneventful for the first 9/10th of the trip, and then we turned off the main road and began to climb the mountain. Some people say that the trip up the mountain is a free back massage. Others warn that large-breasted women should wear a sports bra. Neither really does justice to the amount of bouncing and jouncing you do on that trip.

Think of the worst logging road you've ever been down. Now add about 50% more and larger potholes. Now stick that road to the side of a sheer cliff. Now add a lot of twists and turns and a fair amount of on-coming traffic (busses, heavy equipment, SUV's, and cattle). I'm not sure what it is in our biology that causes us to look green, but I was definitely there for much of the trip. After what seemed like hours (but was probably 90 minutes) we reached the top. I was very surprised by the size of the town. This place is many treacherous miles from anywhere, but it is a decent-sized little city perched in the saddle of two mountains.

Feeling more than a little green, we finally reached the town at the top of the mountain. It's quite a surprise to drive for miles upon miles through the most rural areas, and then arrive at a fairly large town. Monteverde is, by no means, a city. However, it does have quite a few businesses and homes clustered together around a central road. It's even more striking when you remember that everything in the town has to be trucked all the way up that long and terrible road.

Surprise, surprise, the town closest to the famous cloud forest is often lost in the mist. When we got to Monteverde Lodge, it was blanketed in white, and you could hardly make out the surrounding buildings or the ravine down below. The lodge itself was very well kept and clean, but it was something right out of the 1970s with dark wood paneling, avocado paint, and even a full sized wallpaper mural in the dining room. Speaking of the dining room, the food was beyond terrible. By far, this was the toughest part of the trip in terms of food. I'm sure the need to truck everything from far away didn't help, but there were just some very bad ideas residing on that menu.

Fortunately, there were also several good things about Monteverde. The Rainario or World of Frogs was beautiful and fascinating with dozens of different living frogs on display. We managed to see the two types of poison dart frogs we hadn't managed to see in the wild. We also got to visit the butterfly (and other bug) museum where I held a tarantula just to prove to myself that I could. The various butterfly houses were most impressive, and I have to confess that my impression of butterflies has changed since we went. I've always kind of written them off as being the symbol of silly people, but now I have a more fair and balanced appreciation for them.

Another wonderful animal we saw in Monte Verde was the horse. No, no, not wild horses running loose in the jungle. These were the domesticated kind with saddles and bridles. In fact, we went on M's very first horse ride ever. It was also my first time back on a horse since the painful loss of mine as part of my move to Washington. I think it went extremely well.

My horse, El Raton, was tall, thin, and did not like mud. We got along great because I let him pick his way around the mud puddles and run up all the hills. I remembered why I liked riding in the first place. M's horse, Mambo, was enormous in all dimensions. M had a harder time with his horse because Mambo did not like to move period. This meant that a stable hand had to ride along behind Mambo and yell at him to make him move. M got in a few decent canters, and I was very impressed that he did not seem inclined to fall off. We definitely need to do more horse riding in the future.

Last, but definitely not least, we went hiking in the cloud forest. Up so high, the climate is quite different from the jungles of the lowlands. Most of the reptiles are missing, and so are many of the bugs. However, the animals that love to live up that high are the birds. It seemed like there were birds and bird calls almost everywhere we went. The high point of our hiking was seeing the rare and beautiful Quetzal. We were certainly excited about this, but our guide was absolutely thrilled. We spent some time running up and down trails as he heard the call and tried to find her.

Finally, our last day came. We had another harrowing, sick-making trip down the mountain. We were driven back to the major city of San Jose, and back to that original hotel, Grana Del Oro. We had another fancy, French-inspired dinner, and then we were getting up early to take a short trip to the airport. I don't think either one of us was quite ready to go Our trip to Costa Rica was certainly one for our personal record books, and not just because it was our honeymoon. Usually, I'm not a fan of returning to places we've already been, but this is one place to which I would absolutely go back.