After we changed busses in San Jose (just enough time to pick up our newly burnt CD) we could just make the trip from San Gerardo de Riva to Monte Verde. The last bit of the road was in a schoolbus again, and this time the road was even worse. The Bus moved a lot, and at some point the girls in the bus were screaming, because they thought the bus was falling in the void aside the road.
For us the shock came in Monte Verde, because this is the most touristic place we bumped into so far. It already showed by hotel-touts jumping on the bus before arriving, to talk people into their hotel. For us this happened at the end, but we had luck, and it turned out to be a nice new place (and we found only one scorpion under the dustbin yet). But the owners are really friendly.
The whole town is invaded by Gringo's, young and old, and all the locals have good knowledge of English too. Now we know what it means that Costa Rica is a bit more touristy then Panama. But this place also deserves it, because we fed our jungle addiction again, and the MonteVerde park is realy beautifull. They had put a path in the jungle, also suitable for kids and pensioners, but you could also take some more of the beaten track paths, and just take in all the jungle you wanted.
We also visited the Ranarium (amfibia exhibition) and could come back in the night when there is more activity. It was nice, the gaudi leaf frog is our favourite, it's a nice red/green tree frog with funny hands and legs. In the wild we encountered a giant toad, which had the size of a small rabbit.
The butterflygarden was more disappointing, but maybe it was also because Flo was close to fainting (she had a cold, but the reason could also be because she eat the "asthma beetle", a natural anti-histamine the Costa Ricans eat. I looks like a tiny beetle perfect for frog food, but it tasted like tobasco).
Last night we woke up because police was running through the place, it appeared that the sister of the hotelowner who lived in the back, had some problems with her husband, but with the wind, screaming and sirens it all sounded like a nightmare to her (I slept like a baby though)
After having seen the popular Monte Verde resort, we wanted to see the
non-touristy
counterpart of the Santa Elena reserve. The public transport to this
place doesn't exist,
but everybody in town told us about the different times of the bus. So
we waited a long time,
but obviously none showed up, so we caught a cab with 4 swiss blokes.
We had the reserve
almost to ourselves, and from a watchtower and other spots you could
see the active volcano
Arenal, but it's peak was covered in the clouds. Because there was no
public transport,
we had to walk back all the way to town, passing several canopy tour
operators. Some of
them offered a cable ride, so out the forest came Tarzan wannabee
sounds of thrillseeking
gringo's... The boss of the hotel also caught some yankee behaviour,
because he left a
tearbreaking note under our door saying goodbye as if we were his best
friends. Nice
intention but a bit over the top..
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