Monteverde is a town in the northwest part of Costa Rica in the mountains known for it’s cloud forest, basically rain forests in…wait for it…wait for it…the clouds. The popular activities there are walking a path across bridges through the rain forest and zip-lining through and above the rain forest. As the saying goes, when in Monteverde…so we did both. The zip-line had 13 sections with one zipline 1/2 km long and another 1km. The highlight was the tarzan swing where you step off a 30 foot platform and after falling towards the ground, swing like you’re 6 years old again. Weeeeeee. At night in our hostel we hung out with Daniel, a Fijian/Kiwi/Aussie that has been traveling the world for the better part of 6 years and currently grinding his way through Central America.
Nora and I then headed to La Fortuna, a town of waterfall, Volcano, Hot Springs, and when we were there, a lot of rain. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. So much so that the hostel guy told me to leave (because of the rain, not because of something I did…again). During our time in La Fortuna, we did see another sloth, and walked over to the waterfall (which obviously was raging with all the pre-said rain) but missed out on seeing the water in it’s light blue glory.
Next it was on to the surf town of Santa Teresa. To get there we had to take 4 buses and a ferry but it was well worth the effort when we were once again bathing in sunshine. However, the curse persisted and I continued my losing ways. On the way I lost my reusable water bottle and once there (before you say only things attached are safe from me losing on this trip) I even found a way to lose a toe nail (hit a tree root on the path leaving the beach).
Santa Teresa was great. It’s a beach town that has a vibe much like Sayulita, Mexico. It’s a dirt road town and that road connects several little towns and beaches together, never fully differentiating where one begins, and one ends. It is one long continuous beach as well with soft sand and decent size waves. The main transport for people in the area are ATVs and motorbikes and all day you will see people riding up and down the road, transporting their surfboards by the handlebars, on the back, or with U shaped racks on the side. However, for all the people I saw carrying surfboards, over 3 days, I only saw about 10 people in the water actually surfing. Posers.
In our dorm at the hostel were Daniel and Alan, two college kids from Costa Rica, and in that random small world way, Daniel also worked at Breckenridge this past ski season. The second afternoon we hung out at the beach drinking beers, with me learning about Costa Rica and how to speak proper (and not so proper) Costa Rican Spanish. After being mesmerized by an incredible sunset, we had dinner at their friend’s restaurant (also owner of our hostel), and then sat on the beach drinking Cacique Gauro cocktails. Cacique Gauro is made from sugar cane and the most popular liquor in Costa Rica. They dropped Halls cough drops into the bottle to give it flavor and we mixed it with ginger ale. It tasted great, except for the Halls.
The next day Nora and I hiked to the town of Cabuya, an even smaller surf town about 12km away. While we never did quite find the/a town, we did somehow find an ice cream shop in the backyard of someone’s house (I don’t recommend the chocolate chip). The hills on the dirt road were steep and it was a very hot day so after sticking out my thumb, we were thankful for the ride back from a French couple in their rental car.
And with that, it was time for me to start my next adventure and head towards Panama. I left the next morning and arrived 7 hours later in San Jose. This was my last chance to pick up my ATM card but alas, still no ATM card delivered. So, the next morning I boarded another bus and 17 hours later arrived in Panama City.
Hola Panama.
Life is good. Pura Vida
Sounds like a blast!! Jealous