Dec 29th Pictures

After a leisurely breakfast, we arrive downstairs to get our ride. Lo and behold, it's are same driver from last night, Herson (need to get email address). He is a really nice guy and we are glad that our driver speaks good English. I would highly recommend using him. Once out of town, we get on the Pan-American Highway. Some of it is 3/4 lanes, but most of it is 2 lane. When people have vehicle problems, they just stop in the road and people have to go around. Plus, with all the hills, following semi-trucks can make the going very slow.

After two hours, we stopped at a roadside restaurant to eat. I had want Herson had - fried fish with garlic. Lisa had a chicken salad, when she was extremely disappointed in. The chicken was basically boiled chicken pulled off the bone. Have I mentioned Costa Rica food yet? Oh, it is extremely boring, not like Mexican food at all. You would be very surprised. No spices, no heat. They even drink their coffee mild. It's a bit of a shock, but certainly not shocking to our digestive tracts. You'll are probably going to want to ask for some tabasco, if you indeed eat true Costa Rican dishes. Otherwise, there is more than enough food similar to USA dishes.

The paved roads are well-maintained and not much construction, so getting around Costa Rica (for the most part), is somewhat simple. One challenge is that there are limited roadside and street markers. You'll get occasionally signs which point you towards the correct city, but otherwise, you may have to pull over and ask for directions. I would suggest you hire someone to drive or go by Interbus. Also, it's a lot less stress. When did see many USA citizens driving, so may it's not that big of a deal. I would advise against it.

Well, like life, all good things must come to an end. Just like pavement. After lunch, we turned towards Monteverde off the Pan-American highway. Unpaved roads in Costa Rica are not as bad as the Sudan, but it's no fast going. We are probably moving less than 20 MPH the entire time. If you're rent a can, you definitely need a 4-wheel drive. Lots of bumps and narrow passages. I don't think the pictures can related how bad the road is.

About halfway though, we came upon a wonderful rainbow. It was pretty amazing and full of color. Here a few of the best pictures:

Once we arrived in Monteverde, I was glad I had brought my map from Frommers.com. Like I said - no road signs. Monteverde is extremely hilly, nothing is flat. Walking and riding a bike is for the young and those without taxi fares. We got taxis three times, for $2, $3, and $5, worth every penny.

We arrive at De Lucia Inn, paid our driver, and checked into the room. We ate at the hotel restaurant, which was very good. I can highly recommend it. The hotel is another story. It's a small hotel with about 30 rooms. The walls are paper thin and Lisa wasn't happy about the mold around the toilet. I think the walls are cedar, but I'm not sure. If you have cedar allergies, this would be a problem. 

That night, we had a Hidden Valley Night Tour arranged by http://www.monteverdeinfo.com, Well, the booking people didn't tell the tour company to come pick us up. We were scheduled to start at 7 PM, but no one was there by 7:15 PM. Fortunately, the guy at the hotel called the tour company and immediately sent a taxi. The taxi ride was about 3 minutes. If I had a better flashlight and directions, we could have walked there. Anyway, we got caught up to our group quickly and started the tour.

The first thing we saw was a sleeping possum (I couldn't get a pic). Then crickets, spiders, a sloth, and few birds. It was a nice little tour and fun for us to get out at night. You'll notice in the picture that we have our cool weather gear on.

At the end, the company took us back to the hotel and we slept. Tomorrow is an early morning.

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