Day 22 and 23: Trip to Monteverde National Park

Day 22 and 23: Tuesday and Wednesday,  March 8 and 9

     The casas (homes) in Costa Rica are very colorful. They are usually behind bars or a fence....many have a grand entrance with huge gates and columns. Below are some of the picture of homes that we took along the way on our trip today.

     We drove to Filadelphia (just like Philidelphia) turning right on route 21 south. Continued on to the town of Santa Cruz and stopped to go into a bank to exchange some US dollars to colones. What an experience! When we entered the bank we went through a metal detector that had glass doors that closed behind and in front of you. Larry and I entered the building one at a time. We had to take a number and sit down to wait our turn. While waiting, the guard ushered us to sit by another American who was from Montana. I thought it was kind of the guard who only spoke Spanish to introduce us to each other with his body language. She was wanting to use an ATM machine and couldn't find one....we saw the machine on the exterior of the bank. Anyway she  and her husband ran a touring business in West Yellowstone and were coming from Monteverde. It was good to hear her thoughts on the area since we were heading that way. They had been camping and were ready for a Costa Rica Cabina (hotel) and some air conditioning. They were not ready for the hot air of the Guanacaste Region and said that Monteverde was a delightful mountain climate. Anyway while chatting another American approached us to  speak. He had married a Costa Rican girl and had driven a car from the states here. Said the police stopped him 47 times driving here from the US to Costa Rica. He was a nice 30 year old young man who had come here as a missionary and fell in love with the area. His wife was expecting her 8th child. Both people were great entertainment while waiting for our turn at the bank. By the way, all the tellers were men (6 of them)  and they all wore suits and ties. Larry finally got his colones ($) and then we went to the store to try to get batteries for the camera...NO Luck, but we did see these kingsized grasshoppers in the window of the store....they were amazing!

                                                                      Santa Cruz
     Journeying on we stopped for gas in Limonal and then arrived at the town of Las Juntas around 3:30. Following the road, it turned to dirt and gravel, we continued on for 15 minutes. No traffic, the road was not too bad, and we were just enjoying the riverbed and the scenery that slipped by us. A couple on a fourwheeler drove up to us and waved us down. They spoke only Spanish but somehow communicated that we were going to wrong way....how they knew is beyond us. ....other than the guy picking up a small rock and pointing ahead saying "Grande".  He said a whole lot of other things too, but we said "Gracias" and turned around. Got a few more directions in town and noticed that someone had spray painted over the arrows pointing in the direction of Monteverde. We bet a lot of other people have gone the wrong way too.

Monteverde means green mountain

     So up, up, up the mountain road we went and it did turn to rock and dirt....it has to be the bumpiest, rockiest, roughest, unbelieveable road that we have ever been on....this road made the road to Hannah, Maui look like a walk in a park. We were in first gear 95% of the time. The hugh tourist buses, the Costa Rica public transportation buses, the little tourismo vans, four wheel drive cars, motorcycles, passed our little Yaris over and over. For 2 and 1/2 hours we made our way up this road and finally arrived at the town of Saint Elena on the top of the moutain. It  was a larger town than Tamarando. The roads in the town were all paved. The sun was setting so we quickly found the hotel that Larry had called on the way.  We took a nice walk around the town and ate dinner.
     The next morning after breakfast we headed up to Monteverde National Park....another ride up a muddy, rough road. There was a water truck  wetting the road to keep the dust down. We passed many back packers walking up the road. After about a half and hour we arrived at Monteverde National Park, one of the most visited areas of  Costa Rica and known as one of the world's finest examples of a rain cloud forest. Actually Saint Elena is also a rain cloud forest area with a slightly higher elevation than Monteverde.We paid a $34 dollar entrance fee, got a map, and took off for a two hour hike through a jungle of thick vines and huge trees.  One tree alone can be the home to over 70 varieties of plants. Many had warned us that it rained here a lot. There was misty rain the night that we arrived in Saint Elena. Luckily, we got to enjoy the whole day in clouds and sun, but no rain. During our two hour hike we enjoyed seeing several hummingbirds, delicate flowers, towering trees, a swinging bridge, and beautiful views of the valley below with clouds covering the views one minute and opening up to the green (verde)  lands below. After climbing and decending hundreds of steps through the forest we relaxed in the cool mountian air and ate a picnic lunch....Larry's favorite, peanut butter and jelly.

     We headed back to Saint Elena to get a candy bar and  found very few choices....Larry settled for a Cadberry. We started back down the mountain toward Las Juntas  around 3:00. Larry had planned to go a different way on another unpaved road, but was told that it would take an additional hour to travel  to the pavement so we decided to travel down the same bumpy, rocky, rough road as the day before.  We arrived home around 7:00pm really glad to see our Oaks Condo at Tamarindo Beach.

So long to the rain cloud forest.