Abbey's Road

The biggest adventure we had involving Monteverde was the drive there. That’s not to say that Monteverde wasn’t exciting. But it was hard to beat the drive for hair-raising adventure. It started out great. Sandra had been dying to find a place that served coconut milk right out of the coconut, so she was pretty excited when we stopped for lunch at the closest thing we could find to a rest stop and, there in the parking lot, was a guy selling coconuts. After eating our lunch, packed from the French bakery of course, we lined up for some fresh coconut milk. The guy pulled out 6 coconuts, whacked off the top with his faithful machete, and popped a straw in each one. It was pretty good, but we were a little disappointed. Sandra said it just wasn’t the same as the ones she and Michael used to get in Sri Lanka. Maybe those were better because the guy used to climb the tree to get them while you waited. After you finished drinking all the milk, you handed it back to the guy who would then whack it in half so you could peel out the coconut meat. You can tell the coconut we eat in the US is sweetened because this only had a hint of sweetness.

From the main highway there are two main routes up to Monteverde, both of which turn into gravel roads after a while. We wanted to be sure we took the best gravel road so we even stopped to ask. Believe it or not it was Michael’s idea. After driving through a town we soon hit a gravel road and just figured it was going to be like that the rest of the way. We then saw a sign to Monteverde painted on a retaining wall (why waste money on a post?) so we turned and started climbing up into the mountains. The road got pretty steep and we were starting to wonder why they had told us to go this route. We finally decided that the only way up the road was for all of us to get out and walk on the steep spots, except for Michael who was driving. After 2 or 3 rounds of this, and letting the engine cool off, we figured we were at the “top” and were on the way down now. Well, the down slope didn’t last long as we came up to the steepest hill yet. This time Michael and the minivan had met their match and got stuck 50 feet from the top. He somehow managed to back down the hill halfway without running into a ditch and got turned around. By the time we got back down to a safe spot the brakes were burning and barely stopping us. While we were waiting for the brakes to cool we talked to a guy and found out we weren’t on the road we had thought we were. We had missed a turn in the last town. We also noticed that the front tires were shredded, so we figured we had to get new ones or at least rotate them to the back. When we got back to the town we saw the sign, but it was half-covered up, so it was no wonder we missed it. We found a service station and while rotating the tires they noticed one was worn down to the radial. So the guy drove my brother to another shop to buy 2 new tires, brought them back and put them on. The whole thing only cost us $165. Not bad considering we were worried we were going to get stuck up on that road and would end up spending the night there. We finally pulled into Monteverde around 9, in the rain, finding the right road this time. It was far better than what we had ventured up earlier. It’s too bad the first road was so rough because we had some spectacular views from up there.

Monteverde is high up in what they call a cloud forest. Many times when you think it’s raining, it’s really just the moisture in the clouds that are passing by. They call it horizontal rain. The next day we decided to take the free shuttle to one of the nearby preserves instead of attempting the roads again on our own. There are two preserves there which they use to study and protect the unique ecosystem, but they also open up a small percentage of the area to tourists. We went on a self-guided tour through the forest crossing several suspension bridges. We didn’t get to see much in the way of wildlife, but it was a pretty cool perspective being high up in and above the trees – sometimes as much as 180 ft. above the ground. The vegetation is so thick, though that you never know how high up you really are. It’s like that all over CR. I’d hate to have to bushwhack through that stuff.

Arco Iris Lodge (a popular name), where we stayed in Monteverde, was another cool place. It had a number of small buildings each with a few individual rooms or apartments in a very pristine setting with great views. The rooms were all wood including walls, ceiling and floor. I found out just how slippery the floors were the next morning when I got up to go to the bathroom. In my room the bathroom was down a few steps and when my heel hit the first step, I went flying and hit the steps myself. Yea, I went to CR and went surfing, body surfing and did zip lines and how did I get hurt? Falling down in the room. I wasn’t hurt seriously but was way too sore to do another canopy tour that we had planned for that day. I was bummed but such is life.

I was well enough the following day to go on a guided hike in the cloud forest preserve. Our guide, Bernal, actually grew up in Monteverde and you could really tell how much he loved the flora and fauna of his native land. We had an older couple from London in our group and it was easy to tell by the size of his camera lens that they were avid birders. Bernal first took us to the hummingbird garden where in just a few minutes we saw several different beautiful species. I never knew there were so many or that they could be so colorful.

After a short walk down the path into the preserve we found out what really got his heart racing. He took us to an area where there was the best possibility of seeing a quetzal. The quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala though it is no longer possible to see it there. It is an endangered bird with much of its remaining habitat in CR. Many people believe it is a magical bird so you can imagine how excited the Londoners were when we spotted the first one after only a few minutes wait. Bernal was jumping around trying to find the best spot to view the bird through the scope he carried along. First a female showed up, then the more colorful male. Then, another male, and another female. You could tell how excited he was, like it was the first time he had seen one of these birds even though he’s probably seen them dozens, if not hundreds, of times. When the London woman saw them through the scope she was nearly brought to tears. In her thick British accent she exclaimed, “My God, my heart is still palpitating!” The birds were beautiful, but we were ready to move on and see some other wildlife after hanging out there for 20 minutes or so. I guess we didn’t quite grasp the gravity of the sights we had just witnessed. The rest of the hike was less eventful, but we did get to see a tarantula and some other birds. After the tour we tried to eat our lunch in the hummingbird garden. Not long after we sat down a coati, a relative of the raccoon started wandering over. We had some bananas which we found out is one of their favorite foods. We packed up our lunch and left the area, but before we knew it the coati had followed us and jumped on one of the bags Michael was carrying. We ended up having to eat the rest of our lunch in the car. We had first seen coatis on the road to Tamarindo and had thought they were so cute. Now, in our minds they had been relegated to a mere pest, much like raccoons.

While in Monteverde we found a great place for helado. That’s Spanish for ice cream. It was pretty darn good and so cheap. It became our afternoon ritual. The 31st was our last full day and we spent most of it driving back to San Jose where we started. It was New Year’s Eve so we were worried about finding a place to eat that night. We had good reason to worry, but not for the reason we had thought. The restaurants were not all booked because most weren’t even open. It turns out that most of the Costa Ricans eat at home with family on New Year’s Eve. The one restaurant we found open was very nice, but there were only 4 tables full including ours, and all with tourists like us. It’s funny how holidays are celebrated so differently in different countries.

When I told my Dad about the things that had happened on our trip he said, “It sounds like a nightmare to me.” I guess I should’ve started with the good stuff instead of the most adventurous parts. After thinking about it I realized it did sound a little bad, but in reality we had a great trip. I would definitely consider going back. We heard about several places that we didn’t make it to that sounded great. I do want to brush up on my Spanish first, though, and next time I’ll be much more alert with my stuff.