Day Five - A Change of Pace

Today we moved on to a very different town and a definite change of pace. We awoke after a pretty good night of sleep and had another breakfast of fruit, rice and beans and eggs. The fruit at the hotel was so good. I'm a fan of pineapple but this was particularly good. We went across the street to the coffee shop for one last cup for the road and then boarded the first stretch of our planned jeep/boat/jeep excursion. The "jeep" was actually a van. We joined another couple from our hotel and stopped by Gringo Pete's (another hostel in town) to pick up a group of three young men who were obviously in some kind of hair contest. Then we headed off around the mountain to the shores of Lake Arenal.

The boat ride across the lake was absolutely stunning. Behind us the volcano grew smaller and smaller and to every side, lovely mountains rolled into green hills which met the lake. Kate was particularly excited about the boat portion of this trip and the experience did not disappoint. What amazed me most were some of the homes on the hillsides by the lake. I can not imagine what it would be like to live beside such beauty.

At the other side of the lake we hopped back into another "jeep" (micro bus) and headed off to Monteverde by way of one of the most dangerous drives I've ever been on. We were literally winding our way up and down mountains on a very thin dirt road. However the driver was very skilled and you could tell that he had done this many times. We were in good hands.

The little towns of Santa Elena and Monteverde are just tiny mountain villages connected by a dirt road. However, they are one of the tourism hot spots of the country. There is a rainforest on either side of them and a few years ago National Geographic wrote a piece about how Monteverde Reserve was the place to see the rare and beautiful bird, the Resplendent Quetzal. It is not the busy season for tourism now but we could tell that the little towns could be teaming with bird watchers and the dirt roads crowded with tour busses. It's very interesting observing the positives and negatives of the tourism industry on the country and culture. On one hand a ton of jobs have been produced by the industry and Costa Rica is one of the more wealthy countries in Central America. It's great to see the pride that the local Tico's have as they are giving you directions or greeting you. On the other hand, the constant drone of rental ATV motors and the screaming gringo's on zip lines through the forest are really invasive to what would otherwise be a peaceful, heavenly place. However the government and most tourist destinations seem to be handling it well. There is a lot of emphasis on preserving the rain forests and a lot of hotels really stress saving electricity, recycling and reusing towels and linens from day to day.

We are staying in a little cabin on the west side of Monteverde near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. After staying downtown in San Jose and La Fortuna it is nice to be away from it all. The place is owned by a family that lives on the grounds. There is a little deck outside our cabin from which to look out over the beautiful fields and forests surrounding the place. Today we say a few little capybaras running around on the lawn below. If we are lucky, we are told that we'll see monkeys in the trees. After settling in we walked towards town. We stopped by the local cheese factory (they make excellent gouda), ate some lunch and sampled the cheeses. We'll be stopping back for a tour tomorrow. I am really excited about the cheese tour!

We then headed to our only real event of the day, the bat sanctuary. The compound housed the bat sanctuary, chocolate shop, art gallery and Argentinean Restaurant. Kate got really excited about the bats. The tour guide was really friendly and had a deep love of bats. She gave us a 40 minute informational talk about different species and how they are good for humans (and have a similar bone structure to us). A lot of the talk was aimed at debunking scary myths about the creatures. The facts were a lot of fun. For instance, I learned that if I were a fruit bat I'd have to eat 350 whole bananas a night to satiate my appetite and Kate would have to suck down 150 liters of nectar! Then the best part came. We were led inside the bat sanctuary. The guide noted how lazy their bats were because of the easy life they led. They probably had 10 different species of fruit eating bats there and we were lucky enough to show up during feeding time. There was a little sound system set up in the place to capture their echolocation, pitch shift it down so we could hear it and then play it over loud speakers. When the worker stepped into the cages the bats freaked out! He gave them pineapples, watermellon and apples. Bats were pigging out everywhere, upside down.

Saying adios to the bats we walked further towards town, hit up an ancient internet cafe and shopped for some groceries. Then we returned to the Argentinean restaurant for dinner. It was really good. Of note was the salad dressing, which the owner said everyone asks about. She would not fully reveal the ingrediants but Kate already has ideas about how to make it. By the time we were done it was dark and Kate and I walked the 2 km dirt road in pitch black back to the hotel. It was a very peaceful walk with a light mist and lots of insect noises.

Now it's raining and we can hear crickets outside our windows punctuated by the occasional hum of a passing motorcycle. I may play my ocarina on the porch before bed but mostly we're just going to take it easy. Tomorrow we're touring the cheese factory, a butterfly sanctuary and a coffee plantation.