Saturday January 29, 2005

This morning we were up and ready to go early. Our taxi, which was a minibus arrived at 8:30am. The cab driver’s name was Don and he told me a lot of information as he drove us to Liberia. There was tons of sugar fields in the area through which we were traveling – Guanacaste! He told us that Guanacaste is the largest sugar producer in Central America.

Photos of the drive from Liberia to Monteverde (click here)

Don headed back to Potrero once we got all squared away at Avis. I was shocked at how much care they take with rental cars in Costa Rica – checking every part of the car before letting you take off.  Equipped with a Nissan 4 wheel drive we grabbed a bite of lunch at a Burger King and headed off southeast down the Pan American Highway 1. Although it is the major thoroughfare through Central America, it is a two-lane road with plenty of potholes and a lot of other obstacles to dodge -- such as cattle, horseback riders, and bicyclers! After about 1.5 hours we turned north onto a secondary (dirt) road towards Monteverde. The sign indicated that it would be another 35 kilometers! The road was bumpy and dusty at first -- and became moreso -- but the views were amazing! Many times we were just driving along the edge of a cliff lined with trees.

Monteverde is a little town that was established by a group of Quakers from Alabama in the 1950’s. As we got closer to town the potholes became like craters. They refuse to pave the roads because they want to keep tourism in cheque and not attract additional activity. Describing the magnitude of the potholes in words would not be adequate – it is something you'd have to see to believe.  Our 4WD SUV was a must ... we would not have made it otherwise.

We headed for the Trapp Family Lodge which is the closest lodge to the entrance of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The lodge is adorable and we had a mountain suite - #26. The front of the suite is all glass with a pretty forest view. There are curtains to pull back at nighttime for privacy that separates the bed area from some chairs near the glass windows at the front of the suite. It looks brand new and it is really nice.

Once we got situated we got back in the car and drove back into town. We stopped first at the CASEMCOOP, which is a craft store for local artisans to display their wares. The kids picked up a few things there and while I was paying they went out with Mark to play on the seesaw. All of a sudden they came back bursting though the door – they had run into Luis Sr. driving a tour bus full of German tourists! It was such a coincidence that he had a tour group up there. We talked and visited with him for a while.

We ran into Luis, Sr. in Monteverde!  Small world!

Later, we headed to another shopping area called the Lazy Frog. They had several cool art shops and we got a painted plate for ourselves and some wooden animal puzzle boxes for Anna and Maria.

By this time we were starving so we grabbed some dinner at an Italian place in town called DeJohnnys. It was really delicious. They know how to make Italian food well in Costa Rica. Monteverde is a pretty touristy town so there are not many authentic looking Costa Rican restaurants there.

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