Belated post on Costa Rica

So. I had written up a really great post on our stay in Monteverde, had just about finished and only needed to add some photos before it was ready to post online when my iPad decided to be unreliable and not save the document properly. Arghh, so frustrating! Now I will attempt to recount our few days there and remember how I had written the previous post, but I'll have to warn you: the last post was one of the greatest pieces of writing known to man, but now that it's gone I just don't know if this one will measure up ;-)

Resplendent Quetzal

As mentioned, our next stay was in Monteverde, where we stayed in the small tourist hub of Santa Elena. The entire area is quite popular and a bit touristy because of the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. This is an almost permanently cloudy and misty rainforest located at a high altitude of 4600ft, that does not have the same sort of wet and dry season that the rest of Costa Rica has. Apparently, the trees don't even have rings due to the lack of distinct seasons!

We were quite happy to find a reasonably priced hostel with a few other backpackers, and a hostel owner who spoke English. On our first evening in Monteverde we met a dutch girl, Linda, and went along with her for a night hike in the forest with a guide, Donald. Donald was a biologist around our age with excellent English and an encyclopedic knowledge of the forest and its inhabitants. We spent our evening scanning the trees and path with our flashlights, gazing in awe at various animals/birds/insects/reptiles, and running ("vamos chicas, vamos!!") through the forest towards something found by the other group, who we were in constant communication with via walkie talkies. Between the sloths, white nosed coatis, kinkajous, olingos, tarantulas, snake, and a lone sleeping toucan, it was a pretty incredible introduction to the wildlife of Costa Rica!

With our guide, Donald

The rest of our time in Monteverde was spent doing some of the longest (and highest!) ziplines in Latin America, learning and tasting our way through a local plantation of coffee, cocoa and sugar cane, and going on a day hike in the cloud forest reserve. We were pleasantly surprised to have Donald as our guide again. He brought his scope, knew where all the nests were and how to make various bird calls, and we lucked out when we saw a beautiful Resplendent Quetzal.

Unfortunately the nightlife in Monteverde had a bit to be desired. The winds that we appreciated during the sunny days turned into chilly and very strong gusts at night. I actually found myself wishing that I had brought a hoodie -very different from the 36 degree highs and humidity the rest of Costa Rica had!

Linda was heading in the same direction, so all three of us headed to Tamarindo next. This was our last stop before Nicaragua, and a place where various species of sea turtles come to nest. It was a long night of exploring a dark and secluded beach by moonlight only (flashlights disturb the turtles) with our guide, but it was definitely worth the time and money. We saw three large Black Pacific Sea Turtles come up onto the beach -pretty incredible stuff! I was glad that conserving and not disturbing the turtles was a focus as well. We weren't allowed to approach the turtles until they had turned around and were heading back to the water, and the only light we used was a dim red one that didn't disturb them. Unfortunately no flash photography meant very poor photos, but the experience was great regardless.

Tarantula during our night hike

From there, we have made our way to Nicaragua, where we are now... but thats a post for another day!

 

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