Touristy moments in Monteverde

San Jose - Monteverde

Saturday night in San Jose. I had my most expensive dinner to date: Pizza Hut delivery service. It was 9.30pm when I realised I was starving and it was the only place that was still doing deliveries. It cost me 8 quid. I so am living the high life here.

On Sunday morning I was still undecided on which way to head. I had several options: To take the scenic route to Nicaragua via San Carlos and do the 10h ferry crossing lake Nicaragua to Granada, but as the boat only goes twice a week I would've been very restricted with my schedule. This was what I's been planning to do all along, but the longer I've been on the road the more I've realised that plans are made for changing. I stlll wanted to see the Pacific side of Costa Rica as well, but at the last minute I decided to hop on a bus to Monteverde, 5h bus ride north of San Jose in the mountains. Before I left I went for a drink with Jorge, a Mexican guy from the hostel. We ended up in an Irish pub, and I made him to order fish and chips. Very Costa Rican!

Is there anywhere on this planet that wouldn't have an Irish pub?

Unexpectedly, I really enjoyed the bus ride, even though the bus was nowhere near as comfortable as the one I took to Puerto Viejo. The scenery was great, and I had a lovely ice cream at the roadside service station. Coming up to Monteverde there was the most amazing sunset.

Stepping out of the bus I was greeted by cool, fresh mountain air. I was actually quite shocked by how cold it was. Well, it must have still been about 20 C at least, but it felt soooo cold compared to the San Jose heat. It`s amazing how quickly your body adjusts to the temperatures, even my body...

I checked into Pension Santa Elena, where I'd reserved a dorm bed earlier that day. Did a bit of socialising with some very nice and some less nice (i.e. very annoying) Americans, before crashing to my bed at about 10pm.

On Monday morning I got a bus up to the Santa Elena cloud forest. Cloud forests are what Monteverde is famous for. This place was a sleepy little Quaker settlement until the 70s, when the National Geographic did a piece about the cloud forests and suddenly everyone came flooding in. Well, the Yankees mainly, and now this place is practically North American. It`s definitely the most touristy place I`ve been to in Costa Rica so far, but luckily the forests still remain as beautiful as ever. They`re all protected and much like elsewhere in CR, made into national parks. This country is actually one big national park, apparently about a quarter of the whole country is protected.

Walking into the Santa Elena cloud forest was like stepping into a fairly tale.

It was truly magical, a huge, enchanted forest and I wouldn`t have been surprised if the trees had suddenly started talking to me. There were lots of old men with big hanging beards and a dancing girl.

I`ve never been much of a tree-hugger, but there were a few old fellas I really wanted to hug. (yes, I think I`m losing it...) I saw a couple of tapirs as well. After a 2-hour hike a was completely exhausted, as it was mainly uphill so it was physically hard.

In the afternoon I went to supermarket and bought some food for the first time in 2 weeks. I`d developed a massive craving for a cheese sandwhich whilst hiking and none of the ready made one seemed that appetising so I made my own. They have a cheese factory in town (now you see why I like this place so much) and I bought some local cheese, it was delicious.

I`d booked into a sunset hourseride and at 4pm we got taken to a rancho and I hopped on a very appropriately named horse, Tequila. He was beautiful, if a bit lazy, but it suited me fine as it was only my 4th time ever horse riding. It was only me, the guide and another girl and both of them were experienced riders so it was up to me to adjust quickly.... The guide was a bit mental (his friend who we bumped to rode standing up... I can only be glad he wasn`t my guide!) but it was kind of good for me as he really pushed me to my limits - he even made us to do a galloping competition. Three actually. The first time was really scary. I just hang on to Tequila for my poor life and prayed silently. The second time was really scary. The third time was really scary, but I loved it. I lost all three, and I blame lazy Tequila. Obviously nothing to do with the freaked out jockey (is that what they call them?). Coming up to 6pm the sun was setting over the mountains. It was just breathtaking.

I`d moved to my own room at the hostel and even had my own bathroom. The life of luxury! Had a great shower (I`ve had so many cold and horrible showers here that a good one is defnitely worth writing about...) and went out for a posh Italian dinner with Ellie the other girl I was riding with. My posh Italian dinner with a starter, main and a huge glass of wine came to 10 dollars. The plan was to go for a few drinks with the mental horse riding guide but by 8.30pm we were both ready to hit the pillow.

This morning I did a very long tour around an organic coffee plantation and mill. I now know all there is to know about coffee. And something that I`d been suspecting for a long time was confirmed, regarding Starbucks. I really hate their coffee, and think it tastes like shit. Well, as we were explained about the grade A and B coffee beans that gets separated I asked what happens to the brade B coffee. I`m sure you can guess the rest. So they buy the low quality coffee for pennies and sell it to you for a lot of money. You`ve been warned!

This is my Amelie moment digging into the barrel of freshly roasted coffee. Mmmmm....

I bought some lovely organic Monteverde coffee to take home so you`re all invited to sample it once I get back.

In the afternoon I finally gave in and did the famous canopy tour. That`s basically 12 ziplines over the cloud forest, REALLY high, some of them REALLY long, i.e. over 600m. I wasn`t going to do it initially (being all older and wiser after my disasterous bungee jump) but everyone I met kept raving about it. It was actully good fun, but I wouldn`t recommend it to anyone scared of heights...

I`m catching the bus at 4.30am in the morning to get to the highway, and then hop on to a connecting bus to Nicaragua. My time is CR is nearly over, but I`m looking forward to Nica a lot.

I`m so so worried that I`ll sleep in again... Wish me luck. Thanks for reading. x