Cloud Forest, Ferries & Coffee Shops

Nicole and I were both up at 7am to pursue our separate morning activities. It was an interesting example of how two reasonable, intelligent people can look at the same set of facts and come up with different conclusions. The night before, we had each, independently of each other, stated, "Well, since this could be the only time that I am ever here..." For Nicole, the logical conclusion was to pack in activities by going to a coffee tour at the Don Juan plantation, and then by trying out the ziplines. From the time when I began researching things to do in Costa Rica and then all through San Jose, La Fortuna and Santa Elena, we had been hearing conflicting reports. One group of people swore that the best place to zipline was La Fortuna. The other swore that the only place that any discerning tourist would want to zipline was at Monteverde. Both groups swore that their respective picks had the longest and/or highest lines. Some people said that one or the other was faster. Everyone agreed that Monteverde's lines were the oldest. Now, Nicole would be able to give a discriminating report on which set of lines were indeed the best.

For me, I took the perspective that whichever canopy tour was technically 'the best', I had a fantabulous time on the lines at La Fortuna. I tried all of the crazy tricks that I wanted to do, and I had great photos and video of the event. Therefore, I wanted to use the time in Santa Elena to see as much of the surrounding countryside as possible. In the morning, I asked the nice man at the hostel if I would be able to go horseback riding. He made some calls and set me up for a trail ride leaving at 9:30am. This gave me an hour to go attempt to use an ATM, no good, and to walk around the town a little. I discovered the local frog, butterfly, and insect displays, but decided that I could survive the disappointment of not actually forking over $10 to see the same creatures that were surrounding me all of the time. I actually would have liked to enter the frog house, but was content having seen the green and black dart frog in person.

At 9:30, I was picked up in a rattly old jeep by Carlos, a man in his early 40s who looked to be in his early 60s. He spoke no English, but was nice enough to try to understand and not wince at my bad Spanish. We drove over a crazy rutted road, which prompted a quick Spanish lesson to learn the word for muddy ruts, barros. Along the way, Carlos told me about his land, and Costa Rica and his life. It was actually a good chat, forcing me to use my Spanish. We arrived at his family's farm, Las Brisas, and I climbed out to be greeted by Carlos' wife, brother, sister-in-law, son, mother and father. The abuela (grandmother) just loved me. She grabbed hold of my hand, kissed my cheek and rattled away in Spanish far beyond my limited level of comprehension. I smiled, nodded, and deeply enjoyed the experience. After signing a waiver and putting on a bike helmet, I climbed up on my pinto horse and we were off! Carlos led the way and two boys, Jose and Ruel, who apparently work on the farm, came along.

We rode out along a trail through a number of post and wire fences, which Carlos was able to open while on horseback and either Ruel or Jose would jump down to close. After half an hour of a fast walk and occasional trot, we emerged onto a hill looking out over the Nicoya Gulf and what seemed like half of Costa Rica. It was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't believe that this family was able to just come out to such a gorgeous spot whenever they liked and that they actually owned that view. Wow. Carlos' father had bought that land 41 years ago and they had put in cows, horses, coffee, bananas, beans, and everything else they needed to survive and thrive. We continued riding through a patch of forest, where I learned that the tree with the spiky trunk was the limoncillo tree which produces the amazing citrus that looks like a lime on the outside and an orange on the inside and tastes like a strong lime with a jasmine accent. Yum.

We rode to the coffee field and the banana trees. I tried a coffee fruit, upon Carlos' enthusiastic encouragement. Hmm, maybe the mata de cafe is sweet to someone unaccustomed to process sugar, but it was a flavor that I would not rush to experience again. I was surprised to learn that there are three coffee beans in each fruit rather than two, as I had assumed. I also saw a gorgeous new mata de banana just starting to sprout bananas from flower. Amazing.

We continued riding through brooks and up and down hills. Every so often we came out upon a point with a view so beautiful that it made my heart hurt. The two boys were lots of fun and Carlos was a wonderful guide. My pinto was one of the best trail horses that I have ever ridden. She was sweet tempered, never once tried to scrape me off on a tree and I was actually able to drop rein and ride with both hands free to take photos or video whenever I liked. The day was clear and sprinkling at the same time. It was very odd. The sky was wide and blue overhead with just a flew scattered cirrus clouds that looked far too wispy to carry water, yet there was an almost constant spray of tiny misty droplets. There was also a strong wind that frequently gusted over the mountain. From December through February, this wind blows almost constantly. This was difficult weather to dress for. I alternated between freezing and boiling with occasional lulls into comfort. After a 3 hour ride, I had to go back to the house, because I wanted to arrive back in Santa Elena by 1:30 at the latest, to be sure that I didn't miss our 2pm shuttle to Montezuma. I hated to end the ride, but was just so glad to have seen as much as I did. Horseback really does allow one to see more than hiking does and it's just plain fun. I love imagining myself as ye olden Pony Express rider or frontier woman - definitely too many novels at an impressionable age.

After dismounting, I was escorted into the office for a lovely treat of two homemade cheese empanadas. These are made with a thick corn dough folded pastry style over some yummy cheese. It was the perfect thing after a 3 hour ride in the fresh air. I felt that I had definitely earned some cheese, and I am always excited, as a vegetarian, when I actually get the opportunity to eat local food. Not to mention, it was just so sweet of them to go to the trouble. I also had some refreshing hand squeezed lemonade poured from a clay pot. Accompanying the delicious snack was some great conversation about the mountains and the family and their history. This was one of the highlights of my trip.

Back at the hostel, I met up with Nicole who had a great time on the coffee tour, actually meeting Don Juan of the Don Juan coffee plantation. Unfortunately, we are still unsure which ziplines were the best, because Nicole's summation of the difference between La Fortuna and Monteverde was, "they're both good". :) I guess that we'll have to go with the advice that when in Costa Rica, go ziplining, enjoy the experience, and don't care too much about which set of ziplines you ride. The experience is going to be amazing wherever you are.

We had scheduled a shuttle service to transfer us from Monteverde, across the Gulf of Nicoya and over to Montezuma on the peninsula. Our shuttle was late which was fortunate for us since we were running a little behind ourselves. We were amused to climb onboard and discover two of our jeep-boat-jeep companions from the previous day and our Irish friend, Caroline, from La Fortuna. Every country in the world has a tourist circuit and so backpackers do tend to continuously run into each other at World Heritage Sites, and famous scenic towns, but it's still fun and surprising to keep running into the same people. Everyone agreed that New Year's in Monteverde had not been ideal, but the Canadian couple from the jeep-boat-jeep ride had apparently suffered the worst blow. The previous day, they were sipping on their flask, having a ball, arranging to meet up with everyone at the local hot spot, eagerly planning their ziplining adventure for the next day. When we met them again, Nicole and I asked, "So, how was your New Years?" Silence. Heavy Silence. "It SUCKED!" That was our cue to change the subject. Then it turned out that they hadn't even gone ziplining because they didn't want to go in the rain. They had come all the way out from Liberia just to go ziplining and then they didn't go. There was some serious tension in the air between them.

Along the dirt road from Santa Elena out to the highway, we stopped a couple of times (at my request) to take photos of the plentiful Monteverde rainbows, arco iris. There are rainbows everywhere you look up in the cloud forest; full rainbows, painting their way across half of the sky. Amazingly, the rainbows actually touch down! Right across the road, a house or a garden plot will have a rainbow glow and then you have to fight the urge to dig for leprachaun gold. The clear skies and misty rain make abundant rainbows a given in the cloud forest, and it was magical to see.

Once we hit the highway, we split up the group: the two couples, including the grumpy Canadians, went off in a new, Northbound shuttle; Caroline split off in a Southbound shuttle to Manuel Antonio national park; Nicole & I continued in the same shuttle with a Costa Rican girl, Cristina, who was going to visit her boyfriend in Santa Teresa, also on the peninsula. We had to drive like maniacs to make it to the ferry before it disembarked, but we made it with 5 minutes to spare. Luckily, we had Cristina with us, because she had taken the ferry dozens of times, and knew just what to do to get our ferry tickets from the local bakery. Odd.

On the ferry, we had an hour and a half to chat with our new friend and just chill, enjoying the water, the birds, and the peace. I love ferries. There's just such a feeling of peace in knowing that there is nothing that can be done. It's a zen time in which to relax and to be fully in the moment, knowing that that moment will never be recaptured and to appreciate the blessings of being alive. In a way, I suppose that ferries are my church, or at least, the place in which I am most likely to feel spiritual.

It turned out that Cristina's family was part-owners of the SkyTrek hanging walkway and zipline extravaganza, one of the first ziplines in Costa Rica. She lives in San Jose, in an apartment with a roommate, and is currently going to school. She plans to open a business relating to customized high-end tourism when she graduates, and with her smarts and her family connections, I'm positive that she'll succeed. She had been visiting family in Monteverde and was taking the chance to spend the night with her boyfriend before going back to San Jose in the morning. Fun fact: Cristina is 22, her American boyfriend is 44. He's a chiropractor who moved to Costa Rica from New Jersey to live the pura vida, and never looked back. There are loads of American expats in CR, all of whom seem happy and successful.

When we docked, we were met by a second minivan which drove us out to Montezuma. Cristina was met in Cobano by her boyfriend, who drove her the rest of the way to his house in Santa Teresa, and Nicole and I were off to Montezuma. The only problem: it was New Year's Day and we had no place to stay. When we were making the final plans for this leg of the trip, we put it off and kept thinking that we might end up going down to Manuel Antonio or to a different beach, and so we waited too long to get a reservation. I admit, I thought that we'd be able to find something once we were there. Well, in Costa Rica, the whole country really celebrates Christmas. The week between Christmas and New Year's is a holiday week with festivals and parades and loads of people from San Jose all fleeing to the beaches, including Montezuma. So, not only were there the tourists taking advantage of holiday time and school breaks, there were also the locals visiting the beach. When we arrived, there was not a room to be had. We actually had the bad luck of arriving 2 minutes too late to get the last available room at a really ratty, run-down, scary-looking hotel called El Capitan. Sad to say, we would have been happy to stay there, but a couple had beat us to it and then had the gall to actually try to bargain down the price of the last available hotel room in the entire area. We heard later that some people had actually taken taxis all the way back to Tambor before being able to get a room.

Luckily, at the third hotel that we checked, the proprietor took pity on us and offered to let us sleep on a mattress in his hotel coffee shop. Seriously. We took him up on it. The other option, which I would actually have enjoyed, was to sleep on the beach with the people camping there. However, a large number of Costa Ricans had told us that this was a very bad idea and that there were lots of foreigners hanging out in Montezuma who would rob, rape and/or kill us if we slept on the beach. I'd be fine with the rapine and murder, but like a true capitalist, I couldn't risk having my property stolen! It was very sweet of this man to let us stay in his nice safe cafe which was currently closed for renovations. However, there was one rule, we had to be back at the hotel by 10pm. It was 8pm when we were talking to him, and all we needed to do was eat dinner. After all, there would be other nights to party. All we really needed was a place to sleep, so we gratefully agreed to be back at 10 o'clock, dropped off our packs and headed out to dinner.

Now, most of you will know that I am prone to serious hypoglycemic events when I get too hungry. I was hungry. I was very hungry. Unfortunately, when I'm hungry, I get picky and so, we actually passed the first few restaurants on the main street of Montezuma, heading back to one particular location that we'd run across in our search for a room. There, we found that the restaurant was fully booked, and we ran into Gabriel from La Fortuna. I told you, it's the tourist trail. Now, as soon as we saw Gabriel, I thought, "oh crap". Gabriel was with two American girls who were both doing volunteer work in Costa Rica. They were lovely girls and I really was happy to see Gabriel again, but we were now a party of five. This was one of the busiest nights of the year for this town and most restaurants only have seating for less than 20 people total, with the average table size being most convenient for a party of two. Remember, I was hungry, it was after 8pm, we needed to be back at the hotel by 10pm, and in Costa Rica, it can take over a half hour to be given a menu at a restaurant. Time was getting tight.

Anyway, off we all went to a restaurant that Gabriel, Sara, and Jill had been to the night before, a cute Italian place that smelled fabulous. Well, they were full. However, all the restaurants in the town were full and we decided that we might as well just pick one and wait. We were seated by 8:30 and had ordered by 8:45. I verified at this time that there would be no problem in getting our food in time for us to be back at the hotel by 10pm. Sure. At 9:00, the waitress told us that it'd just be another 10 minutes, at 9:30, we were offered free beers, at 9:40pm, we left Gabriel, Sara and Jill still waiting for their food and headed off to the supermarket. By that point, I had edged beyond hungry and irritable into a state of fascinated disbelief. We really were unable to sit down in a restaurant and eat dinner in less than two hours. I ended up buying a bag of tortillas and some sliced cheese and wished that I had just done that to begin with instead of putting myself through the agonizing and fruitless wait for food.

We made it back to the inn by 9:50pm and were tucked in with the lights off by 10:15pm. The cafe was open to an internal courtyard and was covered with plaster dust and sheeting for the renovations. The nice man had pulled in a thin double mattress and covered it with a clean sheet. We had a sink (part of the cafe kitchen) and the courtyard for an emergency toilet. The small patch of sky that we could see was covered in stars. It was beautiful and amazing, and I felt quite adventurous camping out in the middle of a hotel. After covering myself in Deet, I nodded off like a baby and enjoyed wonderful dreams.