The next day was our trip over to Monteverde. The two towns are not that far apart, unless you count vertical distance. The main problem is the roads between the two places are really rough and difficult to navigate. However, there are some horseback tours that can get you there and another service called jeep-boat-jeep that can easily get you there quickly, and shave at least an hour (of really rough travel) off the overall trek. Its clever name is derived from the fact that a jeep or taxi takes you to a boat that transports you across the Arenal Lake, to another jeep or shuttle, which drops you off at your hotel.
The boat ride was gorgeous and would have been very enjoyable if it wasn't for the two insane annoying teenagers behind us. The woman was from London, I think. I was not quite clear where the guy was from. They were maybe sleeping together but it was hard to say. Based upon the conversation, it sounded like they had been backpacking and staying in some hostels and that she had a boyfriend somewhere. All I know for certain is the two would not shut up for the entire one hour long boat trip and the conversation wasn't even fun to listen to. So, it wasn't like you could just sit back and enjoy a nice eavesdropping session. Instead you just felt trapped with this overwhelming hope that these two would somehow pass out mid-sentence and end your suffering.
Fortunately, the boat ride did have a terminus and we were not on the same shuttle with the non-stop-talking duo. This is where things got even more beautiful. Basically, this entire end of the drive is uphill and you find yourself looking out the window at seemingly never ending countryside with rolling fields and farms and just natural beauty that your brain has trouble processing. Within the span of the drive, the temperature drops about 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) and the roads continue to get increasingly miserable.
Finally, we got to our hotel, which was only about 500 meters down the road from the Cloud Forest Reserve. Along the road to there, is the Hummingbird Museum, which is basically a little shop. My guidebook recommended going to this shop for some free hummingbird observation. So, we headed up the road and were astounded with the hummingbirds zipping around the little outdoor area, whisking in-between the feeders and trees. They went so fast and so close, you often worried that they were going to hit you. However, they were much too smart to do something stupid like that and easily negotiated their way around any innocent bystanders. Afterward, we briefly checked out the Reserve, which was closing and headed home to our hotel to get to our night tour.
This was pretty cool, as we got to walk through the rain forest at night and see lots of nocturnal animals, even tarantulas. It had its moments of being a little scary, like when everyone turned their flashlights off and you realized how dark it really was and that anything could be crawling on you, including that huge spider that was only 3 feet away when you initially turned off your light. It was really a great experience.
The boat ride was gorgeous and would have been very enjoyable if it wasn't for the two insane annoying teenagers behind us. The woman was from London, I think. I was not quite clear where the guy was from. They were maybe sleeping together but it was hard to say. Based upon the conversation, it sounded like they had been backpacking and staying in some hostels and that she had a boyfriend somewhere. All I know for certain is the two would not shut up for the entire one hour long boat trip and the conversation wasn't even fun to listen to. So, it wasn't like you could just sit back and enjoy a nice eavesdropping session. Instead you just felt trapped with this overwhelming hope that these two would somehow pass out mid-sentence and end your suffering.
Fortunately, the boat ride did have a terminus and we were not on the same shuttle with the non-stop-talking duo. This is where things got even more beautiful. Basically, this entire end of the drive is uphill and you find yourself looking out the window at seemingly never ending countryside with rolling fields and farms and just natural beauty that your brain has trouble processing. Within the span of the drive, the temperature drops about 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) and the roads continue to get increasingly miserable.
Finally, we got to our hotel, which was only about 500 meters down the road from the Cloud Forest Reserve. Along the road to there, is the Hummingbird Museum, which is basically a little shop. My guidebook recommended going to this shop for some free hummingbird observation. So, we headed up the road and were astounded with the hummingbirds zipping around the little outdoor area, whisking in-between the feeders and trees. They went so fast and so close, you often worried that they were going to hit you. However, they were much too smart to do something stupid like that and easily negotiated their way around any innocent bystanders. Afterward, we briefly checked out the Reserve, which was closing and headed home to our hotel to get to our night tour.
This was pretty cool, as we got to walk through the rain forest at night and see lots of nocturnal animals, even tarantulas. It had its moments of being a little scary, like when everyone turned their flashlights off and you realized how dark it really was and that anything could be crawling on you, including that huge spider that was only 3 feet away when you initially turned off your light. It was really a great experience.
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