La Fortuna - Last Day

La Fortuna- Day 2


Today we awoke to sunshine, yippee and sore leg muscles.  I didn’t think I was using my quads yesterday when we were canyoning, however they are screaming this morning as I went down stairs for a cup of coffee.  We decided, seeing as it was a beautiful day that we would  take a cab to the entrance of the waterfall and then hike down, yes I said down, 500 Costa Rican style stairs to the base of the waterfall.  It was a spectacular 150 ft. cascade of rushing white water into a swimming hole below.  Serena and Alex jumped in but the waves of the falling water kept them close to the rocks.  We then went around the bend to a quieter area on the river and swam amongst the rocks.  The water was a little chilly but the sun was shinning and it was very beautiful.  When then had to hike up the 500 stairs to the top.






 We made it back to the Hostel for a couple hours of relaxation by the pool before we took off on our next tour.  We took a guided hike to the volcano and through the rain forest, then they took us to the Baldi Hot Springs to relax in the hot mineral pools.  The hike was very informative on how to survive in a rain forest.  Our guide showed us how to extract water from moss, what plants to eat and how to comb our hair.  We were lucky enough to see a spider monkey way up in the trees and some real cool red ants marching across the rain forest creating a well maintained path to their nest.  We checked out a sensitive plant that closed up when you touched it and learned about a mint plant and looked up a termite nest to see bats hanging out.  The hot springs where huge, with many pools ranging in temperatures from 93 to 152 F.  We found a couple of quiet pools way up at the top and relaxed as the girls checked out the water slides.  There were three that were completely in the dark and pretty crazy. 
 

We made it back to the Hostel at about 9:30 and met the girls' new neighbours.  They were two couples with their kids from Ottawa.  So we spent the next hour explaining what we had done so far and what we like the best.  So far Canyoning has been the best. 

Arenal Backpackers Hostel was a great experience.  The pool and common area/bar was a great place to hang out and by 11pm all was quiet.  The guys at the front desk were super and had an abundance of information and were able to book tours at a 20% discount.  We met a lot of great people and what surprised me the most was the average age and the number of families.  We would definitely stay here again if we come back.  Now we are off to Monteverde!

 Monteverde – Day 1


We travelled from La Fortuna to Monteverde by “Jeep boat Jeep”  Actually it was more of a mini van, ferry, mini van, but that doesn’t sound near as adventurous in the tour books.  The roads are quite amazing here, it’s like travelling our B.C. logging roads, with added pot holes and a whole lot more traffic as these are their main highways from one point to another.  Needless to say it takes awhile.  We arrived in Monteverde at about 11:30 and were able to check into our next Hostel.  Pension Santa Elena is quite different from Arenal Backpackers, but the rooms are clean, the people are friendly and the tourist information unbeatable.  As part of our check in Rand one of the owners sat down with us and explained everything we needed to know about Moneteverde.  It was incredible!

 

By 1:30 we were whisked away on our first tour to a coffee plantation.  We booked through the hostel with the local coffee co-op and were taken to one of the local coffee farmers.  As we drove I’m sure we went through 3 different weather systems.  And that my friends is what Monteverde is known for, It’s eco systems.  It is located right on the continental divide on the pacific side.  So the weather changes quicker and more often than in Canada.  This is their transition season between wet and dry so they get a mixture of both.  It is very windy and when the clouds roll by it’s like being in a coastal mist.  There are also no flat spaces, the whole town is built on the side of a Mountain with very narrow streets and windy curvy roads.  We arrived at the coffee plantation and were greeted by Juan ……  His daughter was a tour guide for the afternoon and her name was Joyce.  We started off by picking and learning about ripe coffee beans and how they are harvested and processed.  Papi (Dad)  owns the land and picks all of the coffee beans himself.  Harvest is from December to February and they harvest as the beans ripen, which is not all at once due to the elevation.  The coffee plants need a balance between sun, shade and rain.  Therefore they grow a variety of trees amongst the coffee plants.  There were banana trees which are cut down after they produce one crop on bananas, orange, lemon and fig trees.  They use a variety of trees to create a balance of shade for the coffee plants.  They only grow one type of coffee in Costa Rica and that is Arabica

The local farmers prefer to let the ripe bean dry with the outer shell on it and then process it.  However this is a far riskier way to process the beans and the crop can be lost.  Therefore they only do this for their own use and the other method is used when they export the crop for sale.

All of this was explained to us as we wondered through the plantation.  We finally ended up at the farmers personal home where his wife had coffee and fresh banana bread waiting for us.  The house was a simply shack by our standards, but they were more than willing to host us for 30 minutes and tell us all their stories.  She was an American who had come to Costa Rica in 1985 to teach English, he was her student but to this day does not speak much English.  They have two daughters and the farmer has lived in this area all his life.  He has no desire to leave.  We then left the farm and went to a coffee shop in town, where we tried three different coffees.  They were all very different but my favourite was the one the farmers prefer,.  Which I course you can only buy while you are here, they do not export it.  The downfall of travelling in a backpack is you can’t bring much home with you, however I did manage to buy a few packages.  On the flip side the girls both thanked us for buying them packs as we were loading from van to boat and back to van again today.  The tourists with suit cases were definitely struggling  up the uneven inclines of the lake shore.  No docks involved you just jump out onto the shore and climb up to the road.  Way easier with a pack.  It was a full day and we finally had some decent food for dinner and I think Alex was in bed at 8pm.  We have a busy day planned for tomorrow and a 5:30 am wake up call to take a bus to the Could Forest and go on a guided tour.  Hence Alex’s face book status.  I keep telling her she can sleep and eat all she wants when we get to the beach house.  She laughed at me when I first told her we were in bed by 10pm each night on these vacations.  She didn’t understand, I think she does now

Monteverde - Day 2

We were up at the crack of dawn today  5:15am so that we had a chance to see the wildlife in the Cloud forest.  We hired a guide to take us through the Monteverde Cloud forest and explain all of the aspects.  It is different from a rain forest in that it’s not actually raining it is misting from the clouds.  The northwesterly air flow comes up the Atlantic coast’s rain forest and as the air rises and hits the continental divide it forms clouds.  These clouds pass over the mountains creating a light mist and then evaporate as they descend down the other side on the way to the pacific coast.  It was quite amazing to watch the clouds actually disappear before your eyes.  Our guide was very informative and we were extremely lucky to spot a rare Costa Rican bird called the kitzell.  It was beautiful will a lime green back, red breast and poofy hair.  Our guide Juan Carlos had a telescope so we were able to look through and see it up close.  He then put our camera lens into the telescope so that we were able to capture the picture.  I never imagined bird watching to be this exciting.  We then went further down the trail and spotted white faced monkeys and then howler monkeys. They were moving fast from branch to branch so it was difficult to get pictures.  This girls climbed into a strangling fig tree that had destroyed it’s host tree and was now hollow inside.  We strolled through primary and secondary protected forest and then made it back to see the hummingbirds.  They are quite a bit bigger than ours and have the most amazing colours.
 

 
 This afternoon we got our fix of adrenaline rushes.  We took the girls on their first canopy tour.  We zip lined through about 10 towers and approximately 3 km of line.  The highlight of this tour was the superman line and the Tarzan swing.  Both were very cool.  For the Superman line they hooked you up so you were facing downward and flying through the air like superman.  No breaking with your hands as you couldn’t reach the line.  You came flying into the platform face first and the break on the line caught at the last minute to stop you. 

 

The next stop was the Tarzan swing.  On this one you walk down a suspension bridge for about 100 ft and then they hooked you up to a swing line told you to bend forward and kneel down as they opened the gate and let you go.  It was a straight free fall 150 ft. down until the rope caught and then swung you out like a pendulum.  You got to swing for a couple of times until they caught you with another rope and brought you too the ground.  What an extreme sport.  Way better then bungee jumping in my mind.  Although I think I might have left it (my mind that is) at the top of the platform.  We made Bill go first so he wouldn’t chicken out.  By the time it was my turn they had convinced the guide at the bottom to video the whole thing with our camera.  To see the video go to my face book page it is posted there.  This was definitely the highlight of the tour.  Over half our group chickened out and missed the best part.  If I could add the superman and Tarzan swing to the Thailand zip lining it would be amazing.  Both are very different but a lot of fun just the same.

We are off to the beach tomorrow and have decided to take the 6:00am public bus from Monteverde to Puntaranus and then to our beach house just outside Montezuma.  They tell us that the public bus is good and it should only cost us $6 each, plus a ferry ride and then a taxi.  Could be an adventure.  Then we are going to relax in the sun and sand for a few days before we start on a new activity. 

Our hosteling experience has been fun.  We have met a lot of great people.  Today we met a lady from Korea who has been travelling on her own around the world for the past 10 years on and off every 4 months.  She is 63 years old and did the Tarzan swing right before Bill.  Incredible lady, too bad we didn’t have more time to spend listening to her stories.  She stays in hostels everywhere she goes.  What an inspiration.