Category: Monteverde

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.

We set off for our next stop – Monteverde around 8:30 this morning and rather than making the 7 hour trip around Lake Arenal on windy switchback mountain roads, we pulled into a boat ramp roughly 22 kilometres (14 miles) from Los Fortunas and climbed aboard one of Adventuras El Lagos’ twin hulled people movers.

The 45 minute manmade lake crossing in to the Río Chiquito area shaved off nearly 4 hours of road travel and had us arriving at our accommodations – Hotel los Jardines, just on lunchtime.

Lunch was hosted at the nearby Pizzería y Restaurante D’kary, where it was “bring your own waiter day”. The restaurant is owned by the hotel and when we asked about eating options, it was the only venue within easy walking distance. We said OK, so the hotel owner roused some fella out of his room and had him walk us over the restaurant and then serve us. Are rather unique and fun circumstance don’t you think?

A couple of “Avocados” got collected at 2:30 to go zip-lining, while the rest either chilled out or went exploring the town, which is exactly what I did. Maybe its me, or my directional compass was playing up, but I swear I was walking uphill everywhere I went.

We all met up around 5:30 to partake in the included two-hour Kinkajou Night Walk with our guide Donal, who was both informative and knowledgeable. Admittedly there wasn’t a huge amount of animals to get the crowds oohing & aahing, but the animals we did see were quality none the less. Highlight for me was the juvenile two toed sloth who seemed to put on a show for us.

We got dropped off in town and settled on Taco Taco Taqueria for dinner where the selection of crafted local brews got a bit of a workout and the 6 tacos had me as full as a fat lady’s sock, all be it that the chicken, pork and beef fillings were extremely dry and chewy. The accompanying salsa selection was awesome with the highlight being the roasted onion, capsicum and jalapeno concoction.

 A few of us parked up at the hotel bar for a couple of Margaritas and then hit the fart sack just before the pumpkin coach arrived.