Nov 17, 2012 - Monteverde

Monteverde Our first technical hitch! The 08.30 am bus broke down an hour in. Can't say we swooned with surprise as the clutch was clearly the wrong side of 1969 and sounded like a wounded elephant. Conveniently we broke down next to a bar/ restaurant and the conductor happily shepherded us in for a breakfast beer. Another bus was sent for and soon we arrived in monteverde.  A fantastic hilltop town reminiscent of a ski town with a warm climate but  prone to high winds and mist as the clouds swirled around us. The place is the home of 2...

Mar 6, 2012 - Monte Verde

March 6 Travel day means pack up, load up the van drive for an hour and half and meet a boat on Lake Arenal. The 45 minute trip across the lake was gorgeous with only a little rain. Then climb the hill and load a van with luggage and drive another 2 hours on what we would call "green roads" On the Caribbean side the fields are full of ornamental plants grown for export which creates some beautiful views. We're up in the cloud forest here so it's much cooler and there's a constant mist when it's not raining so we put our ponchos to good use....

Oct 1, 2011 - Monteverde

Hey all!!! Today we were in Monteverde, high in the cloud forest of Costa Rica! We elected to do the ziplining-rapelling-canopy tour (known as EXTREMO), Meg with some trepedation and Thom with almost indecent glee!!! Following the all important safety meeting (here´s how you brake, this is what the hand signals mean etc.) we scaled the first tree platform, strapped ourselves in and with a courageous whoop -Meg zipped off first. Each cable was about a ten minute hike up the side of the mountain from the last and went over the valley to the...

Aug 31, 2011 - Le grand Saut !!!

aujourd hui on a commence par une promenade avec une guide dans le parc nation san Elena cloud forest... depart a 6h30 ai ai c est tot la promenade etait belle mais on n a pas vu grand chose, on s est un peu demande pourquoi on s etait levee si tot mais bon. a midi sandwichj et puis 13h retou a l hotel pour me preparer pour partir vers le bungie ... et oui j ai decidee de chercher mes limites c est avec la trouille dans les jambes que j arrive a l endroit du bungie jump, on n est que 2 a faire le grand saut, Daniella et moi ... apres le...

Aug 17, 2011 - A bit like the Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia, but less Land Rovers and strawberries & Cream Teas.

Monteverda and Santa Elena, 17/08/11 A bit like the Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia, but less Land Rovers and strawberries & Cream Teas. The bus from Playa Del Coco took us back to Liberia, from there we caught another bus south where we were dropped off at a road junction that was to take us up to Monteverda. A taxi driver told us that the next bus was 5 hours away, but he could take us up the mountain for US$50. That sounded a lot and so we asked around at the petrol station but didn’t get much luck there. In the end we gave up and took the...

Jul 15, 2011 - Monteverde

Monteverde was a small but very nice town in what they call the cloud forest. I ended up signing up for the famous zip line that they have down here and it was phenomenal. There are a series of 13 zip lines right up in the trees and it was a bit raining and cloudy when we went so we could actually see people disappearing into the clouds and reappearing on the other side. The longest zip line at the end of the series of zip lines was an amazing 1 km in length and they actually get you to do it in tandem with a random person from your group....

Feb 10, 2010 - Santa Elena/Monteverde

This morning we went for a walk through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. We had a guide who told us what the plants and birds were and pointed out bunch of insects, including a tarantula in its hole. We also saw a Quetzal (bird) through the scope for a second. After the walk I went back to town for lunch. In the afternoon, I went to CASEM, the Cooperativa de Artesanas de Santa Elena y Monteverde, a non-profit crafts cooperative that helps local women artists by selling their items and helping them learn how to run the business. I...

Feb 9, 2010 - La Fortuna to Monteverde Cloud Forest

It was hot and sunny, about 85 this morning. I could finally see the top of the Arenal Volcano. The top had been hidden by cloud over the other days. This quite common and many tourists never see the volcano. c After breakfast at the Vienna Cafe, a cafe owned by a woman from Canada, we took a short van ride to Lake Arenal for a ferry ride to the other side and then a van ride to the Monteverde Cloud Forest area. You can drive around but it takes something like 7 hours on very rough roads. Once on the other side our van driver picked us up...

Nov 24, 2007 - Monteverde

It was noon by the time we reached Monteverde. Our hotel had an interesting open air restaurant, with a huge tree for its roof. After a short break, we hit the streets of Monteverde. This is small town with tourism being the major economic driver. We reserved our seats on the next day's bus. The friendly lady at the visitor center briefed us about activities in the area. At 3 pm we went to a Coffee Plantation (Costa Rica being coffee enthusiast's paradise, I could not miss this). It was not a very large and the machinery used were not very...