Costa Rica 2008 - Day 4 - La Fortuna to Monteverde

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY PART II

I woke up right at 4am and saw the volcano erupting (the second night I learned my lesson and kept my glasses next to the table in anticipation). I was so excited in that first instant that I turned to Andriy and went, "Andriy! Andriy!" and shook him awake. He woke up in a frenzy, and he told me later that the way I woke him up, he got really scared and thought that there were volcanic rocks barreling into our window.

It was really cool, from where we were, we could see and hear the individual rocks tumbling down the mountainside. We watched for a little bit in our room, and then we got our cameras and tripods and went outside to the porch to take pictures. I was surprised nobody else was up with us because the rumbling really was quite loud. Andriy got a really nice picture with his DSLR. I got some pictures too, but he was able to use slightly shorter exposure and lower ISO.

We sat out there for maybe 30 minutes. Even though we knew we had to get up the next day really early to catch the Venado Caverns tour, the air was fresh and cool, and it was so peaceful, like sitting at the foot of Mother Nature.

Arenal Volcano eruption.

LEAVING ARENAL OBSERVATORY LODGE

The weird guy wasn't there at the reception in the morning, but check out went fairly smoothly. The only thing that I didn't like was that everything on the room bill was itemized and in Spanish, so it almost looked like there were extra charges, but then I realized they just broke up everything that was included in the original room rate. The price was approximately what I had calculated, but it made me really uncomfortable not to be able to double check that they had added everything correctly.

Another thing that made me constantly skeptical was that I got very very slightly ripped off many times in Costa Rica during our stay. The reason for this is that they always round colones. If it's a touristy place that lists its price in dollars, if you choose to pay in colones, they convert the cost via a slightly rounded up conversion rate and then round up the result as well because they don't like to deal in small change. So really, you lose a couple of cents every time you go to one of those places. There's really not that much they can do considering that the exchange rate always changes a little, but I just feel like you should get rewarded and not punished for using the local currency! I don't think they should accept dollars in the first place, but if I go back, I think I will bring a whole bunch of dollars with me and use them whenever possible instead of colones. With that conversion problem, it's actually worth it sometimes to take the 3% credit card fee (which, incidentally, I don't think the credit card ended up charging me at all - sweet).

We had breakfast in the dining hall and took some last minute pictures before heading out to La Fortuna for our Venado Caverns tour. The guy we asked to take the picture also had a really fancy camera, so he was a good choice because I even saw him move the camera to lock in the focus and then set up the shot.

Last minute volcano pictures.

Last minute lake pictures.

VENADO CAVERNS

Everything always seems to run more smoothly the second time around. When we entered Desafio and said who we were, the guy working knew us immediately. He was like, "Oh yeah, you're the guys who were supposed to go yesterday morning," and I had to kind of laugh embarrassedly and say, "That's us..."

So the adventure started even before we got to the caves. The shuttle van that was driving us had to go pick up one more couple from their hotel, and as it was pulling out, we felt a big jolt and a shattering of glass (luckily only safety glass). The van had run right into the telephone pole as it was backing out. Apparently someone runs into that pole like once a week, so I don't understand why they don't just put a sign up or something to prevent that from happening. We had to wait there for approximately ten minutes while they got another (crappier) van. Andriy felt really bad for the van driver because he was probably going to get in some trouble, while we were just standing around taking pictures of the van and playing with the safety glass.

Tour bus after the accident.

While we were waiting, Andriy chatted with the tour guide and I chatted with the other passengers. There were two girls from Canada (one of them looked kind of like Lori but with a really cool accent), this girl from California who was dressed all sportily and had just been chilling around Costa Rica for a few weeks, and this couple from the hotel we were picking up at who were also from California and were there with the GAP tours. I liked them a lot, and the woman helped us take pictures while we were in the cave. They also had a Canon camera, and the guy had a waterproof case for it, so I asked him what he thought about it (he loves it). The thing that turns me off about the case is that it only works on one model, so if my Canon breaks, I can't use the case anymore either. Plus it's a little clunky.

The ride was roughly an hour long, and even though the scenery was nice, I sort of faded in and out of sleep the whole way. We stopped at some random place on the way, which I wasn't sure if this was part of the company or just the van driver's house, because on the one hand we picked up rubber boots for the caving, but on the other hand the driver also left and his wife and baby came out to replace him driving. The wife drove with the baby in the front, between her and the guide in a little baby carrier, and for some reason I suddenly thought of Britney Spears.

When we got there, we had some time to put on our boots and go to the bathroom. I was lucky that they let us bring waterproof cameras (though they said no cameras, I brought mine anyway), and even though my camera started fogging up halfway through, we got some decent pictures in the beginning and were able to avoid paying $20 for a CD that the professional photographer took of us (though I did still contemplate it because those pictures were nice). While we walked through some fields towards the cave (passing lots of "caca de vaca" aka cow poop), our guide joked, "This is my first time in the cave. But don't worry, I have a map!" He was funny actually, he said he was actually from Venado: "I was born in the cave. Wait. No. Sorry, I don't mean in the cave!"

Ling and Andriy before caving.

Our guide.

Cave entrance.

So Desafio gives what they call "adventure tours," which are basically not so much about history and nature and more so about going out and doing really fun (but also slightly dangerous if you're not careful) outdoorsy things that look straight out of an REI catalogue. So even though we got some minor history about the caves being limestone caves created a long long time ago, really there was not much explanation throughout the whole tour and more so crawling around in muddy water through tight crevices. Which I loved, so it was okay. Aside from pointing out spiders and bats and telling us to step on his shoulder as we climbed up the rock, the only thing that the guide really said the whole time was to keep asking us, "You doing okay? You like it?" He did that, seriously, like every other minute.

When we first got in the cave it was fairly spacious and the water was only about ankle deep. There were holes in the ceiling that reminded me of a spinal cord and made the whole thing feel like we were in the belly of some prehistoric beast. The guide said that the ammonia of the bat poop eroded the limestone over many many years. The weird thing about that is, how did the bat poop get on the ceiling?

Holes in the ceiling from bat poop.

They gave us these masks that we could wear if there was too much bat guano, but we never really needed them. We only needed to watch where we put our hands so that we wouldn't touch the poop... or the big creepy crawlies! The Canadian girl touched one and screamed.

Bats!

Creepy crawly.

Then the further we went, the more wet and cramped everything got. We crawled through some of the tiniest holes, and during one loop the big guy that was with us couldn't come through because the hole was so tiny (luckily it was a loop so he could go the other way). There were quite a few mini waterfalls, which were refreshing and beautiful, and we used them to wash our hands and bodies of sandy mud from the floor.

Some parts we had to step carefully because it wasn't obvious where the stones on the ground were, and I was terrified of taking a misstep and plunging into a much deeper hole below. I liked the boots that we were wearing, though, which were thin enough to be able to feet the floor texture with our toes (though some pebbles got in the boots and rubbed against my ankles and gave me blisters). During one of the passageways, we had to climb down some rocks by stepping on the guide's shoulder, and I jumped a little and hit a rock with my back. It wasn't too bad, but just reminded me that we had to be careful! I was surprised actually that they never asked us to sign a waiver, because something like this in the US would require one for sure. There were more climbing things later on, but I went more slowly and it was fine.

We ended up in this huge cavern with a big waterfall running down the side, right before we climbed out the exit. I had so much water in my boots that I had to lift my leg high in the air to dump it all out. We walked back up to the restroom areas and rinsed off in the showers. They gave us apple juice and water, we looked at the pictures on the computer, and we played with the baby a little before we hopped back on the van and headed back.

Andriy in the cave.

Ling in the cave.

Little butt going into the big butt.

Ling and Andriy during caving.

Ling and Andriy after caving.

Before we left La Fortuna we went back to La Choza de Laurel for lunch. This time Andriy just got a chicken soup because he didn't want his stomach to react. I was actually also finding it a bit like Taiwan (where too much heavy food plus heat was making my stomach feel less hungry), so I also got a soup and a side of fries. The soup was absolutely delicious, and it was very light which was nice.

ROAD TO MONTEVERDE

La Fortuna to Monteverde.

It was a little after noon when we headed out to Monteverde. Actually, the place we were staying was just a bit outside of Santa Elena, but the two towns are so close together that I'm not really sure if we were ever in Monteverde. Monteverde is actually really close to La Fortuna, but for some reason there is no road that goes directly in between them. Instead, you have to go all the way around Lake Arenal, which is not that long of a distance but for some reason takes 4 hours. Here's why.

Driving started out with the same wonderful paved road from our trip to La Fortuna. Even though the yellow line eventually disappeared and the road began to wind more and more around the mountains, it was still paved and gave us spectacular views of Lake Arenal. I finally decided to start driving mountain roads, and it actually wasn't so bad once I understood when to slow down and when to accelerate (gas for better control in the turns), and then after that it was a breeze.

Ling and Andriy at Arenal Lake.

At one point we got stuck behind a truck. Actually, it happened a few times that trucks would come in from the nearby town and slow up a line of like ten cars, all driving 20kph and inhaling nice truck exhaust. But, it was only once that we got to get this great picture of guys hanging out the side windows of their cars:

Guys hanging out the side of their car (click on the picture to see the larger view, you can't really see the guys so small...)

Then we reached the sort of midpoint town, Tilarán. So the entire way that you're driving, there are clear signs for all upcoming towns, up until you get to Tilarán. Then, suddenly, you're in the middle of the town facing a menacing dirt road that just screams, "Turn back, this is the wrong way." So I got out of the car and asked some woman who told me that we just needed to turn around and the boy in the middle of the road would give us information.

So we turned around, and sure enough there was a kid who was probably 14 years old with a little leather folder who told us some directions to continue on to Monteverde. Then he showed us some really (and I mean really) ghetto photocopied maps, showed us this "license" that he had, and said that if we wanted the maps it would cost 2000 colones (roughly 4 dollars). We didn't really need the maps, but then after some internal debate we gave him the money and figured that we were supporting the locals (Andriy called it a reward for learning English). The funny thing is that Andriy had read some website of these two Russian photographers who said that they had also made a wrong turn in Tilarán and also bought some maps from a local kid, and even though they didn't really need the maps, they also figured they should support the locals.

Sure enough, right after we passed the boy, there was another sign for Monteverde. For some stupid (or not so stupid) reason, there was only one spot in the entire trip that we did not see a sign for Monteverde, and conveniently there was a kid there to remedy that for money. To be fair, there were a couple of times on the road where, though we were pretty sure we were going the right way, we were reassured by confirmation from the map.

The road from Tilarán was not good. It was an entirely dirt road with occasional potholes that worsened once it started to rain. The rain was kind of fun because we closed the windows and let the muddy water splash up all around the car. As we got closer to Monteverde the road became more mountainous, but the air and the clouds and the valley scenery made it extremely peaceful and relaxing. Not to mention the cows in the road...

Cows.

The road.

We passed through Santa Elena and stopped to get some money from the ATM. I went to the bank only to realize that I didn't know where my ATM card was. I looked everywhere, and even now I have no idea if I left it in the machine at the airport, dropped it somewhere, or just put it in some unknown location in my bags. This kind of freaked me out a little, but I just trusted that everything would be fine, and I looked up my bank account on the (super) slow internet the next morning at El Sol. Since there were no charges after already so many days, I just figured I could take care of it later. Luckily, Andriy was still able to go and take money from his account instead.

BEST SUNSET EVER

We thought that the place would be right outside of Santa Elena, but it was actually 15 minutes or so down yet another dirt mountain road to get to El Sol. I suppose that we're attracted to these places because they are so far off the beaten path, and certainly the distance from town was rewarded by the most fantastic vistas ever. As we were driving I looked to the right and just saw a sunset that was absolutely breathtaking. I think the biggest tragedy is that I kept assuming that we would be there really soon and hence be able to settle down and take some pictures, but unfortunately, as Javier the owner's son said, "When you see a sunset you just have to stop and take the picture. The sunset waits for no one."

The best we could do were the pictures from the very beginning of the sunset, when we stopped to relieve ourselves on the side of the road before Santa Elena, and the pictures from the very end of the sunset, when we settled down in our cabin and saw the best location for a balcony I've ever seen. The sunset in between - the full blown sunset - it would be difficult to describe, it really was like nothing I've ever seen before. It was like the whole sky exploded, with the sun radiating through the center of the clouds, and color everywhere just painting the entire sky. It was really amplified by our proximity to the clouds at that altitude, you just felt like the whole thing was going to swallow you whole.

Sunset beginning.

Sunset ending (this is the header picture of my blog, but this one had longer exposure, so there is a little more detail of the valley).

EL SOL NUESTRO

El Sol was rated Fodor's choice and was another place that people just absolutely loved on TripAdvisor. It seemed a bit pricey to me at about $95 for just a cabin ($125 for the bigger one), but everyone who was there basically said it was the most calming experience they'd ever had. Some quotes: "The spiritual vibe you get is amazing." "It is difficult to describe this place... it has a positive energy that starts with owner, Elisabeth, and spreads to all corners of the property." "... owned and operated by a decidingly zen German lady..." I figured I needed a little Zen in my life, so it sounded perfect.

Elisabeth's thing is to give everyone hugs (according to a bad review, even if you don't want them). She even said in her email, "[blah blah blah about directions]... you see the trail to the main house... where you have me sitting at the computer, waiting for you with my hug!" So, true to form, we saw the little wooden yellow sun (no other name sign) and pulled in, and there was Elisabeth with her son Javier, waiting with a hug. My hug was a bit rushed because I was apologizing for being a bit late (though I had emailed her to tell her about the tour mishap, we were still delayed by the rain and having to get cash from town), but when Andriy finished parking the car and extended his hand, she was like, "Sorry, I give hugs."

We were lucky because we were supposed to stay in the little cabin, and we ended up getting upgraded to the big one for free. I don't know what the little cabin was like, but the big cabin was definitely worth the price of the little cabin. This was like the king suite of cabins. It was huge, with a beautiful balcony overhanging the valley where you could just sit and breathe and watch the sunset (that's where we got the last pictures of the sun going down). There was also a kitchen area, a dining table, a living area with a couch facing the big glass windows to the balcony, an elevated sleeping area with optional sliding wooden panel to separate it from the living area, and a bathroom with a bathtub and hot water.

Being there, I immediately regretted having to get there so late and cutting short the six hours of relax time I had planned. I especially lamented the fact that we weren't able to be there thirty minutes earlier so that we could have gotten the best sunset pictures. If I were to go back, I would stay for at least two nights and take the day in between to go on their horseback riding tour into the valley.

Kitchen.

Dining table.

Bed.

Elisabeth was actually really busy the entire time we were there, and I only talked to her a little when we first arrived, and then one more time when she sent some guy over in the morning with a telephone with her on the other end. Apparently she had business in the main house and couldn't leave. However, we got the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Javier, who was totally hot btw. One of the reviews had even said, "Just keep the young teenage girls away from the host's son... he's extremely good looking." The thing was, I saw a picture of him on their website, and that was when he was much younger, and he was sort of chubby and not very impressive, but he really grew up. Turns out he's married though, we saw him in town the next day with his wife. Andriy thought his wife was too plump for him, but I guess Latino men like their women with curves...

Javier came with us to our cabin to help us arrange zipline/canopy tours for the next morning. Since we really wanted to take pictures of the sunset, he waited for us and chatted the entire time. He's approximately our age, so talking with him was just like meeting someone new at school, someone that you really clicked with. He was really cool, and his English was excellent (I was actually really surprised that he didn't speak any German). He had helped us carry our luggage, but since he seemed so much like a friend it didn't even occur to me to tip him or anything like that.

Javier was also a tour guide, which meant that he knew the best stuff and also had great connections and was able to convince us not to go to Selvatura for our zipline/canopy tour and to go to Aventura instead (we didn't regret it). Apparently Selvatura is now so popular that the tour sizes are like seventy people, which is way too much, and plus Aventura has a Tarzan swing, which is awesome. Since all those guys knew him, we didn't even need to bring our student IDs, which was good because I didn't have mine. Javier is currently building his own cabin near the others, and he got this horrible looking patch of raw skin on his hand from an accident with the sander. He told us about Costa Ricans, how they view tourists (they're just used to the tacky American attempts at Spanish), when and why their family settled there, and all sorts of tidbits about Costa Rican life.

I was shocked to find out that Javier dropped out of school at 14 and has been working ever since. The reason this surprised me was that he was really intelligent and knew a lot about a lot of things, even technical things, and it just seemed a shame. It was interesting that some places just have different values, and maybe we put so much emphasis here in the US on education, but maybe in some place like Costa Rica there's not a huge market for the set of skills you would learn in college (at least not as huge as the tourism market). Or, is education really intrinsically the ticket to success, regardless of the situation?

After Javier left, Elisabeth arranged for the local family to bring us dinner for twenty bucks, which was really nice because we didn't have to go out again down that bumpy road. This boy around 12 years old came and delivered it to our door in this big picnic basket. There was fried pork, shrimp, rice and beans, mashed potatoes, tortillas, salad, and some other stuff. The only menace was that there were a couple of bugs in the cabin from when we sat outside on the balcony with the door open, and we also had to first clean some ants out of the coffee maker. But the food was delicious (there was quite a bit, but I wished there was more).

Before dinner Javier had walked us to the Finnish sauna, where we had sat for a little while trying to light a fire in the burner. We went back an hour or so later to put some more wood in, but it never really got hot like we wanted, which was a pity. I checked in again the next day when some other people were using it, and it still wasn't terribly hot, so we probably should have just used it when we were in there. The smell of the wood was really nice though, and the pool outside had a couple of cute toads on the side, though I thought it was a little too cold outside to go in. We napped for a little while and returned again at 11pm, at which point we gave up and decided to go to sleep.