Marvelous Monteverde

We got picked up at the hotel and ourselves and various other people from hotel pick ups headed to Monteverde. Monteverde is Spanish for “green mountain,” and traveling through a sizeable part of it became obvious why. Monteverde’s biggest draw is its unique habitat known as the cloud forest, which is named after the mist that is pervasive throughout the rainforest. It is one of the rarest habitats on Earth, and it boasts an impressive range of flora and fauna. This was our planned trip for the following day.

The first leg of the trip involved travelling in a boat across Arenal Lake. Over the years the lake has grown by over three times it’s original size and a dam was built there in 1979. It forms the backbone to Costa Rican green energy drive, providing 17% of the country’s energy.

It was such a shame that it was rainy and misty as apparently the view from the boat normally takes in the volcano from a closer perspective.

It took 45 minutes to cross the lake to the other side and just like we had come from there was no pier or jetty, just a badly rutted track to the water. On our way a minibus got stuck and as we got further from the shore we could still see them struggling to get it free.

When we got to the other side there was a melee of minibuses and a general feeling of confusion.

Our driver found us eventually. I am not certain what language the driver spoke, not English but maybe Spanish – he seemed just to grunt and look bad tempered. The roads towards Monteverde quickly became problematic, more pot holes than you could shake a stick at. Given that I felt the drivers driving was erratic, this made it even more terrifying at times, speeding up and slowing down.

I was glad when we stopped for a short break at a Costa Rican equivalent of a motorway services.

Lovely ducks waddled round the picnic tables. The prices inside the cafe/souvenir shop were eye wateringly expensive in Costa Rica terms. So we left the other passengers and cannily went to a nearby shop, where Pete wanted to do a photo shoot.

We got alot of goodies, including a Costa Rican chocolate, caramel and coconut bit of scruminess.

The journey continued, pothole after pothole. We were the last to be dropped off and the driver couldn’t get us out of the minibus fast enough.

We couldn’t get into our room straightaway and that was a little annoying. We asked if there was anyway round it and the receptionist went to ask the manager. There was alot of animated discussion and we felt perhaps we shouldn’t have asked. The receptionist came back and asked if we had the details of our driver. Confused we gave me it, apparently he had just driven through the barrier.

He completely snapped it. Glad we didn’t get on the wrong side of him!

The reviews for Fondavela were mixed so wasn’t entirely certain of what to expect. One person had said staff were rude and disinterested, another that the place was dated. What we found was everyone was really helpful and that it wasn’t dated, it was beautiful.

Original art hung from the walls and colourful mosaics and wood carvings outside the buildings.

They were all by the artist Paul Smith, an artist originally from Ontario,hard to unpick why but possibly his family owned the hotel.

We decided to go on a night walk in the rainforest. When we left the hotel it was still light, it seems to fo go dark really quickly.

We had Pepo as a guide, he was lovely. There was something quite exciting walking in the dark, perhaps because the sounds seemed amplified. My photography skills weren’t up to much so have added some of Pepo’s.

The bright dot is scorpion seen with a black light.

We saw an orange knee tarantula hiding in a crevice in a tree.