Over Easter we gained an extra day for travel on Good Friday as all things are closed on this day. Me and Jocelyn decided to use this day and leave on the thursday afternoon and travel back to Monteverde, our favourite place so far. We had to book a taxi to take ups to the boat across lake arenal as even by thursday afternoon things were grinding to a hault. It was such a hot day and we simply backed in the back of the cab. The driver was a young guy and having successfully haggled his price down by $10, he spend way to fast, obviously to make up for lost time. The journey to Monteverde went smoothly enough, just like the last time with the jeep-boat-jeep and we arrived at our hostel by 6pm.
The hostel itself was really cool, lots of hammocks, continous reggae music and lots of stray dogs wandering around! A bit different from European hostels. The people were really friendly and helped us plan our activities for the next few days. As we had more time than usual we took things at a slow pace and decided thursday would be ´date night´ as both of us were missing our boyfriends (yes thats you Robs). We found this cool restaurant, with tableclothes, check us fancy pants, and a guy playing costa rica music while we sat there. We shared a bottle of wine, tres romantic and pretended to be as sophisticated as the other people there even though in hiking boots and jeans.
Unfortunately it turned out that night that out roome was INCREDIBLY noisy and we didnt sleep well, so the next day we promptly switched rooms into a double bed room near the back of the hostel. So that Friday we headed to the Santa Elena Reverse, which is the other smaller cloud forrest in the area, and we walked the massive hanging canopy bridges. They were completely amazing as it allowed us to take our time walking high up among the tops of the trees and spots various birds. The cloud forrest is an odd place as it is essentially in a cloud, and everything is eery and surreal. There is a constant dripping from the leaves and all the trees are covered in a thick layer of moss and vines. Some plants near the grounds rarely see light due to the layers of vegetation and so they look so different from other plants. The rest of our Friday was spent chilling in the hostel, eating burritos and chatting with other travellers, one of which told us we had to visit this Argentinian cafe which sold chocolate, supposedly ´near´the hostel. It was meant to be a 20 min walk straight up this hill, so not wanting to miss a chance to eat only chocolate for diner we set off. Well, it can only have taken 20 mins if this guy had been a sprinter (and by the looks of him he wasnt) as the walk ended up being an hours walk up this hill, along a road, down a dirt track, up another road, and then some stairs! By the time we arrived we tired and hot and ordered only two desserts, a brownie with cream and a platter of truffles, a healthy dinner!
By the time we got back to the hostel we were so tired and headed straight to bed, only to have yet another eventful night as someone broke into our room while we were asleep! Luckily jocelyn was quick of the mark and swore at the guy and he left, we think he was just trying to find somewhere to sleep but I certainly didnt sleep well after that!
Our Saturday was designated Monteverde reserve day and we headed off at 7.30 am to start our 5 hour trail through the cloud forrest. It was immense, no other words really, we barely bumped into anyone, it was quiet as quiet can be and we walked mostly in silence just taking in this amasing place around us.
We have set aside the afternoon to check out the various art galleries in Santa Elena as many costa rica artists settle here as they find the place so inspiring. There were a lot of craft cooperatives set up so that all local people, mostly women could display their work for tourists to buy. There is a lot of interesting stuff and all incredibly colourful and lively. Inevitably I ended up in a clothes shop (its art too) and bought a lovely dress, think purple grecian style, and managed to make jocelyn buy a lovely dress too. Another great day in the cloud forrest. The whole weekend was brilliant you just cant go wrong with a weekend of walking, nature, chocolate and shopping!
That is lush!
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