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| From Greg and Sal's Grand Adventure: Costa Rica |
The "touristy" town of Manuel Antonio
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| From Greg and Sal's Grand Adventure: Costa Rica |
Driving by El Avion on our way out of town
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| From Greg and Sal's Grand Adventure: Costa Rica |
We ate here the first night.
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| From Greg and Sal's Grand Adventure: Costa Rica |
What I forgot to mention was our adventure getting there! We hadn't paid much attention to the sign that said "500 meters" and hadn't also thought about the fact there would be NO street lights! We were literally walking in the dark, I couldn't see my feet! We made it safe though and just took a taxi back to the hostel :)
We headed into Quepos (15 minute bus ride) and bought tickets to our bus to Puntarenas (there is no direct bus to Monteverde) which was about 3 hours away. We were pretty starving though and wandered around trying to find food. We came upon Cafe Milagro which I had read about in Lonely Planet. The offerings sounded awesome (a fusion of Latin American and American favorites) and although we were really pushing it, we ordered a couple of crepes to go. And WOW were they great!
After a pretty long bus ride, we got into Puntarenas in the early afternoon. We got a little bit confused but headed towards the water like the person at the hostel had told us. We saw 2 buses to Monteverde and after a brief conversation with some Americans (or Canadians), we jumped on one of the buses. The bus driver warned us (with pantomiming and Spanish) to watch our backpacks. Thanks, bus driver! Unlike our other bus rides, we paid when we got on and barely had to spend 5 minutes in Puntarenas (which I had heard was a sketchy, dirty, port town). We took seats in the back and settled in with our bags.
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| From Greg and Sal's Grand Adventure: Costa Rica |
It was a very long, hot, bus ride and as we got closer to Monteverde, the road also got super bumpy and windy. I can't imagine driving that road very often like the driver must have! The ride was only supposed to take 4 hours but it ended up being over 5 hours long. We deboarded in Santa Elena and it turned into mass chaos in 2 minutes! People were all over us to stay at their hostel, book this canopy tour, eat at their restaurant, RAH RAH RAH!!! Finally we just took the first taxi that offered us a ride (actually a shady guy came up to us and asked if we needed a taxi then proceeded to take a cut from the guy) to our bed & breakfast.
Once we actually got out of Santa Elena, we drove about 10 minutes closer to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Our bed & breakfast was only 1.5km away (about a mile) and much quieter than it had been in town. Thank goodness. The proprietor, Esteban, was there to greet us, he and I had been exchanging emails for about a week regarding our reservation. I didn't know who to expect but who we got was one of the most gentle souled people I have ever met. What a nice change from our first arrival in town!
That night we walked about 15 minutes (partially in the dark) to one of the closest restaurants (we were a little bit in the middle of nowhere). It was an Italian restaurant of all things and was actually pretty good!I was proud of myself because I ordered off the spanish only menu. I should take a moment here and tell everyone that many people (especially in the tourist towns) in CR speak English and basic Spanish helped fill in the holes any time we had a difficult moment. Lots of gringos in the CR... which didn't necessarily make it feel less authentic but did make me wish I spoke another language fluently!
We trekked back and ended the night cozy in our new digs. It was pretty impeccable though we had a few critters in the room due to the fact we were IN THE FOREST! We found ways to try and keep them out though! Also, it was much cooler in these parts than it had been in Manuel Antonio so sleep came a bit easier.
End, Day 4!
