An interesting day to say the least. I awoke to a chilly 20 degrees C and headed the door on my morning walkabout. Breakfast was a savoury pastry and a coffee at a local bakery.
We got picked up at 8:30 for a ½ day meander through the La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena (Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve) which was a 30 minute drive away. The reserve is 1600 metres (5250 feet) in elevation at and has 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) of well-maintained trails. The unique part of the reserve, apart from the flora and fauna, is that it’s privately run by the Santa Elena Technical Professional High School and protects over 300 hectares (741 acres) of land, specifically leased to them.
We were all done by12:30 and headed back to the reserve office to catch the 1PM bus back to town. By the time we got back, dropped all the passengers off it was close to two o’clock, which left me no time to go anywhere for lunch as I was being picked up at 2:30 to go ATV riding.
100% Adventura picked me up on time and collected passengers along the 45 minute drive to their mountain operations. I paid my $60 USD and went through the pre-start procedure with them. It was at this time we ran in to a huge issue, more specifically – my head.
They couldn’t find a skid lid to fit my melon as the largest one they could find was a medium. They even went to the trouble of going back to the employee carpark and grabbing a couple off the parked bike, of which one of them smelt and looked like a mob of jungle creatures “snuck a few past the goalie” in it.
In the end we just said shit happen, got me money back and was parked up at my hotel with a cold cerveza, all in under 20 minutes. On the positive note, I hadn’t been back ½ an hour and the heavens opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted a good hour. Those poor buggers on the ATV’s would have been soaked.
As it was still raining at the allotted 7:20 departure time, we cabbed it over to Pizzeria Natsha were supposedly they were putting on a BBQ for two G Adventures groups. The place was empty except for two diner picking at their plates that looked t have no appeal at all. I left for the toilet to have a slash and while finishing up, an employee emerged from the thunderbox, went past me and I followed him out, watching him head straight for the kitchen – hopefully washing his hands.
While the kitchen door was open, I noticed pets congregated around the prep and cooking area. Hmmm, not good I’m thinking. Sonia must have noticed me and came up asking what’s wrong. I’m not real comfortable was the gist of the discussion, so I legged it over to town and eventually settled on Restaurante Don Luis.
I had pretty good Chicken & Cheese quesadilla followed by a brilliant Blue Cheese and onion salsa burger that was probably in the top 3 burgers I’ve ever wrapped my laughing gear around.
I was in bed checking my eyelids for holes until 1 or 1:30 when a herd of startled un-domesticated wildebeest decided to head home and make on hell of a racket on the stairs, walkways and upstairs floors. On the positive side – it gives me more time to complete this Blog.
