Sunday:
Spanish Level: From the hotel to the lake this morning I had a van driver that spoke only Spanish and I understood most of what he said. We talked about animals in the area and he said this is the place to see toucans. Too bad he wasn’t my guide all day because I would have benefited from his only speaking Spanish with me on a tour all day.
This morning I had to get up early to transfer to Monteverde. I wanted to stay in La Fortuna/Arenal area another night (now that I knew I liked it) and visit the park to try and see toucans and try again to see the lava at night, but for now I had a ticket transfer to Monteverde. My ticket simply said Jeep-Boat-Jeep. I had no reservations for a hotel, no plans, no tour, just the transfer and that was it. In the van we passed a bike race on the way to the lake and some very odd looking racoons. In the boat we crossed a beautiful man made lake, lake Arenal. After the boat ride we took a van to Monteverde there was a couple from England on their honeymoon, a couple from Israel, two girls from Switzerland and two girls from Israel (not traveling with the couple) and me. We rode for about 2 hours on a curvy dirt road up-up-up into the mountains. The Quakers live in Monteverde and there are a lot of dairy and coffee farms here and the cloud forest. It’s beautiful, green, rolling hills, countryside complete with cows and farms and fields, it is very isolated due to roads to get there. Monteverde is famous for the “cloud forest” and for the golden toad that once was discovered here but is now thought to be extinct.
When the van stopped at a hostile in Santa Elena/Monteverde, Paraiso, the girls from Switzerland and Israel got out. I had been talking to them and they told me I should stay here with them, the hostile had room for me too so I stayed there. Staying in a hostile is a cheap great way to travel and you get to meet a lot of great people. I asked for a bedroom to myself and had a community bathroom. It was $5 for the night. I think running a hostile would be fun, maybe that is what I will do when I retire here.
After lunch I took a tour on these “hanging bridges” save your money on this one folks, it wasn’t too good, basically just a walk through a wet forest, but I did learn something new: trees here don’t have rings inside when they are cut or they fall because rings are created in the fall season when the tree becomes dormant for winter. In Costa Rica they don’t have this season, they only have summer and spring basically; therefore, trees here don’t have rings you can use to count the age. There are trees in this forest that engulf other trees and overtake them. At the end of the tour they had one such tree hollowed out and we had to climb up the inside of this tree, it was pretty cool but definitely wasn’t easy.
The other girls went on a canopy tour. After the tours we all went into the town of Santa Elena for coffee and to look around. For dinner we went next door to the hostile. The restaurant in reality is a lady’s house, her living room is the dining room and she makes meals in her kitchen for customers. She was very nice and a good cook. The girls from Israel were hilarious company. They are about 28 and are good friends but act like sisters and they currently live in Birmingham, Alabama. I think everyone on tour here speaks multiple languages, including me!!
Spanish Level: From the hotel to the lake this morning I had a van driver that spoke only Spanish and I understood most of what he said. We talked about animals in the area and he said this is the place to see toucans. Too bad he wasn’t my guide all day because I would have benefited from his only speaking Spanish with me on a tour all day.
This morning I had to get up early to transfer to Monteverde. I wanted to stay in La Fortuna/Arenal area another night (now that I knew I liked it) and visit the park to try and see toucans and try again to see the lava at night, but for now I had a ticket transfer to Monteverde. My ticket simply said Jeep-Boat-Jeep. I had no reservations for a hotel, no plans, no tour, just the transfer and that was it. In the van we passed a bike race on the way to the lake and some very odd looking racoons. In the boat we crossed a beautiful man made lake, lake Arenal. After the boat ride we took a van to Monteverde there was a couple from England on their honeymoon, a couple from Israel, two girls from Switzerland and two girls from Israel (not traveling with the couple) and me. We rode for about 2 hours on a curvy dirt road up-up-up into the mountains. The Quakers live in Monteverde and there are a lot of dairy and coffee farms here and the cloud forest. It’s beautiful, green, rolling hills, countryside complete with cows and farms and fields, it is very isolated due to roads to get there. Monteverde is famous for the “cloud forest” and for the golden toad that once was discovered here but is now thought to be extinct.
When the van stopped at a hostile in Santa Elena/Monteverde, Paraiso, the girls from Switzerland and Israel got out. I had been talking to them and they told me I should stay here with them, the hostile had room for me too so I stayed there. Staying in a hostile is a cheap great way to travel and you get to meet a lot of great people. I asked for a bedroom to myself and had a community bathroom. It was $5 for the night. I think running a hostile would be fun, maybe that is what I will do when I retire here.
After lunch I took a tour on these “hanging bridges” save your money on this one folks, it wasn’t too good, basically just a walk through a wet forest, but I did learn something new: trees here don’t have rings inside when they are cut or they fall because rings are created in the fall season when the tree becomes dormant for winter. In Costa Rica they don’t have this season, they only have summer and spring basically; therefore, trees here don’t have rings you can use to count the age. There are trees in this forest that engulf other trees and overtake them. At the end of the tour they had one such tree hollowed out and we had to climb up the inside of this tree, it was pretty cool but definitely wasn’t easy.
The other girls went on a canopy tour. After the tours we all went into the town of Santa Elena for coffee and to look around. For dinner we went next door to the hostile. The restaurant in reality is a lady’s house, her living room is the dining room and she makes meals in her kitchen for customers. She was very nice and a good cook. The girls from Israel were hilarious company. They are about 28 and are good friends but act like sisters and they currently live in Birmingham, Alabama. I think everyone on tour here speaks multiple languages, including me!!
posted by GA_Peach | 9:53 PM
1 Comments:
Excited to hear that you are one of those who speaks Spanish. Bi-lingual was the goal for the trip. Now what"s going on... vacation disguised as bilingual honing?
Casa Pronto
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