Costa Rica 2008 - Day 5 - Monteverde to Montezuma

HANGING BRIDGES

The night before, Javier had told us to head into Santa Elena at 7am so that we could get some breakfast and then get to the Aventura offices at 7:30am for the tour at 8am. For some reason we just figured that he was telling us to get there early, so we got up at 7am, packed our bags to leave at 7:30am, and got to the offices at 8am. Turns out that was too late, and the van taking us from the offices to the actual tour location had already left. Luckily, it was only about 15 minutes on a dirt road to get to the forest, and the tour guide even waited for us in the forest near the entrance.

Andriy on the hanging bridges.

Ling on the hanging bridges.

Our guide was really knowledgeable. One of the reasons why Javier told us to go to Aventura was because the canopy tour actually included the guide, and since Olga said they saw no animals when they were in Monteverde and Santa Elena, we figured it was worth it. I definitely don't think we would have noticed any of the things that he pointed out if we were on our own. I used to think that animals just hung out of every inch of the rainforest (actually Monteverde is a cloud forest, which is basically a rainforest in the clouds), but I think that was just a myth perpetuated by my third grade science rainforest mural. The actual rainforest is pretty much like any other forest, except a bit more lush and obviously rainy. I'm still obsessed with it, though. I think it might have been cool to go on the hike in the afternoon, when everything would be cloudy and rainy and mysterious.

When we jumped in, the group was just getting onto the first bridge, and already they were pointing at some animals down below. We saw some agoutis and some red foxes prowling around. Actually, I think the red foxes were hunting the agoutis, but we didn't see any bloodshed, so there was no way to be sure.

Agouti (in the middle of the picture, kind of hard to see).

We got to see this beautiful butterfly cocoon hanging from a leaf, though I was too busy taking pictures to listen to what type of butterfly it came from. Actually, a secret pleasure of mine is to take macro shots with my camera and get a nice clear picture while all the other people get crappy blurred ones because they don't know how to change their settings.

Golden butterfly coccoon.

There was also a tarantula in a hole guarding a giant egg sac from which hundreds of baby tarantulas are eventually going to emerge, which is pretty disgusting if you think about it but also pretty cool. Not only did the guide point the tarantula out to us, but he also had this love for helping people take pictures. When we couldn't get a nice shot, he kept asking us to let him try with our cameras, and then he got this picture:

Tarantula with egg sac.

We also saw some owls, and some people in the group saw coatimundis, but other than that it was mostly bugs and arachnids. Our guide did take us on a "not for tourists" trail where he had been hiking a few days earlier and saw a sloth. He figured, since sloths are so slow, maybe they would still be there, but unfortunately we didn't see any. We did see these naranjilla fruits, which are kind of like fuzzy and slightly sour tomatoes (you can scrape the fuzz off). The leaf is fuzzy and soft as well, but you can't touch the veins of the leaves because they have some spikes that might prick you. Our guide picked one of the fruits and cut it open, and we all (unhygienically) rubbed our fingers against it to get some juice to taste. It tasted vaguely like lime.

Naranjillas.

Another thing that I thought was cool was when our guide talked about the bromeliads. Apparently bromeliads only use their roots to hold on to the tree, and unlike the strangler figs that we saw so many of, they don't harm the tree at all. Instead, they use their positioning to collect water and other organic matter like a little cup, and when the organic matter decomposes, they use up the nutrients. There are frogs and insects and all sorts of creatures that have life cycles centered around the bromeliad, so they go there to die, and their bodies are used as nutrients for the plant as well.

Our guide pointing out the bromeliad.

The highlight of the tour was actually not the hanging bridges for me, rather the giant strangler fig that was completely hollow inside and had been reinforced with a couple of ropes for easy climbing. In order for us to get from where we were to the next hanging bridge above, we had to get inside the fig and climb up like a monkey, which is exactly the kind of thing that I love to do.

Empty strangler fig.

Ling climbing up the tree.

Andriy climbing up the tree.

Ling and Andriy at the river.

Finally, at the end of the hike we came across a bunch of hummingbirds and then a whole colony of red ants walking in a line towards some unknown treasure. Before we discovered this, though, some of the other people in our tour walked right into them and got bitten a few times on the leg. We were lucky to avoid this by running really fast. Afterwards we sat in the lobby for a while drinking coffee before we followed the tour van to the location of the zipline.

Red ants.

ZIPLINE

Ok, ziplines are awesome. One of the English dudes was saying that it was funny, we all start of with the nice calm informational walk, and then we just say screw it and go "AHHHH" crazy on the ziplines. You would think that it would be scary to travel via a metal string a thousand feet above the rainforest (especially considering that, according to wikipedia, another name for zipline is "death slide"), but it's really not. It's kind of like skydiving, you sort of have no conceptual understanding of what is happening to you as it's happening. It just feels really peaceful hanging there and seeing the vast valley of trees all around you as you pass by.

Ling and Andriy entering the ziplines.

All of the people from our hanging bridges tour continued on to do the zipline, even the older English gentleman with heart problems (they had to go slower on some parts). This was cool because we had gotten to know the people in the first tour, so it made it feel more like we were doing the zipline with friends and not just the two of us. There was the English family and some other English people. We were looking at some of the video they took and helped them pass their camera from one side to the other with my jacket, since it had zipper pockets. Then there were two Asian-American boys and their mom, and the older one kept asking us if we wanted to hear him scream like a little girl. Apparently they had also gone on a zipline in Mexico, and he didn't go fast enough and got stuck hanging over the highway. He was really bad at ziplining though, since he kept twisting and turning as he went, so we could definitely see how he could have gotten stuck.

After they suited us up, they brought us over to give safety instructions. You're supposed to hold the ropes together with one hand so they don't get tangled, and keep your other hand (the stronger one) back behind you loosely looped around the cable for both balance (to stay in a straight line) and as a brake. Once you get close to the other platform, the guy will signal you to either keep going or start braking, and then you just press down on the cable with your looped hand to stop.

I was a little concerned at first that I was the stopping mechanism, and I asked the guy what would happen if we didn't stop in time. He said they would take care of it, but since it never really happened, I don't know how they could possibly take care of it, other than collision. I think a bigger problem that they have is people who brake too much and end up stuck in the middle of the wire, where they have to come out and get them (theoretically you could also turn yourself around and haul yourself back in). They always had two ropes, the main rope and the safety rope, and the guides always connected your safety rope as you moved from wire to wire, so it was really pretty safe all around.

I know ziplining is, like, not that difficult, but I must say that I was pretty good at it. It's kind of like driving, actually, so it's easy to get a good sense for how fast your going and how much you need to brake. Also, as they hooked you off one line and onto the other, they always asked you to help them out by pulling yourself up to release the tension in the rope. I have really weak arms, but I was pretty good at that too.

The longest, fastest zipline.

Part of the fun of the Aventura ziplines was that they included in the package a surprise rappel and the Tarzan swing. These two things were absolutely crazy. The rappel is fun because they take care of your start and stop, so you basically drop straight down on this rope without any idea of how far you're going (though you could tell them to go slowly if you really wanted to). The guy just says, "Don't ask any questions," and suddenly you're dropping. When I did it, it was like being on those tower drops at Six Flags, and I wasn't prepared for the stop, so my body was a little too loose and I got a tiny bit of whiplash. The old English guy went really slow, and the mom of the two kids went medium slow (though the kids kept saying, "go really fast for our mom!"). Since I couldn't see myself go, it wasn't until we saw this one girl go that I realized how fast it could be. She just dropped, and it was like she suddenly went from up top to the bottom, and I didn't see how it happened...

Andriy being lowered on the rappel.

I was expecting the Tarzan swing to be a small rope with which you swing from one platform to another, but this one was totally NOT that. It was a bit more like bungee jumping, since you climb up a really tall tower and just jump off and hope that the rope catches you. I actually didn't really think about the whole freefall thing until I got to the top of the tower and realized how tall it was. But I was already there, so I said what the heck and jumped.

I don't even really remember jumping off because the swing caught so quickly, but the initial moment was a little bit like jumping out of the airplane to skydive. You have this sudden gasp in your chest, and then the adrenaline takes over, and then it's over. When the rope catches it's just like being in a giant playground swing, and I tried to keep my legs together and point my toes. In retrospect, I should have hollered and pounded my chest like Tarzan. The little boy did not end up screaming like a little girl.

When they went to catch me, my shoelace was untied, and the one guy got my shoe, and it fell into the bushes below. They retrieved it pretty easily, and the guy put it on for me, jokingly holding his nose like it smelled really bad (it only smelled a little bad).

While we were walking up the tower, Andriy almost backed out. He never does stuff like this (never been on a roller coaster), and I was already proud of him for getting the guts to go on the cave tour and the ziplines, but the Tarzan swing was a bit too extreme. I thought he was going back down, but when I finished and looked up, Andriy was being strapped in and jumped. I was so proud of him I almost cried a little. He said afterwards that it was scary but turned out to be fun, and he got over his fear of not being in total control (he said ziplines were much easier because you controlled your own speed).

The Tarzan swing tower.

Andriy on the Tarzan swing.

Because only one person could go on the swing at a time, we waited around while everyone else took their turn. Everyone was cheering and laughing, so it was a fun time. There were two more lines after the swing, the last of which went over this beautiful expanse of valley, which was a fitting end to a really spectacular tour. We hiked back up to the entrance area, and since we didn't have to wait for the van, we just drove our car out back up to El Sol.

Here is also a video I took of us ziplining:


LEAVING EL SOL

When we got back to El Sol it was pouring rain. There were a bunch of old people at the main house in their bathing suits heading over to the sauna. The oldest old man stayed at the house on the rocking chair talking to Javier. When we showed up to check out, we spoke to him a little, and this somehow turned into a really long conversation between him and Andriy about NMR and other physics related stuff. Apparently he retired a long time again but still goes to some conferences in Cambridge.

While they talked, I checked my bank account and then got some directions out to Puntarenas from Javier. With all of his mad connections, he called some taxi driver in Puntarenas and came to the conclusion that the ferry did not have too many people in this season and we should take that rather than driving all the way around the peninsula (as the guy at Arenal had told us). Then, when we paid for the room, I was pleased to find that we didn't have to pay for the beer that Andriy had or the semi-use of the sauna. I don't know if they were actually free or if Javier was just being nice to us, but if it was the latter, that was really cool of him.

Right before leaving, I went out in the rain with an umbrella and my camera and took some last minute pictures of the pool and sauna. I said hi to the people in the sauna, who were all just hiding in there from the rain chatting away. It would have really been nice to just stay and hang out, I feel like I could have just packed up and moved there forever (or at least for a few more days).

Javier, Andriy, and the old scientist.

Rainy path with cat.

Pool and sauna.

ROAD TO MONTEZUMA

Monteverde to Montezuma

Javier's directions were pretty straightforward, so we didn't have any trouble making it to Puntarenas. The road after we got out of Guacimal was paved highway, and with the exception of a tree that fell down and a bit of heavy downpour, we sailed along and made the trip in about 2 hours.

Just outside of El Sol we stopped at a restaurant, coincidentally also called El Sol, for lunch. I had some delicious fried fish and fries, and Andriy had a chicken soup. There was a cute dog that hung around our table, and I eventually caved and gave him some fish and fries.

The trouble occurred once we got to Puntarenas. We showed up at the ferry and saw a line of cars waiting. It was around 4:30pm. The ferry was supposed to leave at 5pm. I ran out of the car in the rain to look for some tickets, and some annoying guy on the street yelled at me to stay in my car because, "Hey lady! The next ferry is at 8!" The ferry schedule online said the ferry would leave at 5pm, so I didn't see any reason to listen to a random guy who was going to say "Hey lady!" to me, and I wandered into some bakery to ask a more reliable source. Those guys debated amongst themselves, and it turned out that the ferry really was leaving at 8pm. WTF.

I got back in the car, and we debated for a while what to do. I was glad that I hadn't reserved anything for the next two nights, because this now gave us the flexibility to change our plans if we needed to. On the one hand, we could avoid the ferry altogether and just head to one of the other beaches along the lower coast of Costa Rica. On the other hand, I didn't know how long it would take to drive there, and we had already gotten so excited to go to Isla Tortuga for snorkeling the next day. There were some other places that had easy tours out to the island, so we considered Jacó or Herradura, which were a bit far away to the south, or staying overnight in Puntarenas. In the end, Puntarenas was such a trashy city that it seemed more worth it to at least get across the bay to the peninsula.

Once we decided to go on the ferry anyway, we had three hours to kill. We were just relaxing in the car, occasionally bothered by a guy trying to sell us sunglasses and a another homeless guy. Then the random annoying guy from the street came over and started talking to us. He told us that the guys from the ferry were going to come over at 7pm and give us these slips of paper that confirmed that we were waiting in line. Then we should take the paper and go to the ticket booth to buy the actual tickets. He came over a couple of times to update us on what was going on, and he didn't ask for any money, so felt bad for judging him on his randomness and annoyingness.

I was right to hate that guy! Andriy asked him, "So dude, just out of curiosity, do you work for the ferry?" The guy said he didn't work for the ferry, he just worked for tips. But then he left and didn't bother us, so we thought that he was a nice guy and got out two dollars to give him. He came back a few minutes later and said, "I'm leaving in a few minutes. Look, I take care of you, you take care of me. I normally ask for 10,000 colones." Okay, we were going to give him two bucks, but 10,000 colones?! That is roughly 18 dollars. Is he crazy?! 18 dollars for standing around and telling us some stuff over the course of an hour or two?! That is more than a lot of people make in the US, especially considering we were not the only car that he was probably helping. Yes, he did give us some useful information, but that is just flat out extortion. So I told him I would have to go to the ticket office and get change, and while I was gone, Andriy actually told him off and said that he could either take the two dollars or just go. Eventually he took the two dollars, but he made sure to say that it was not very much money. Yeah, whatever, dude, that is more than the cost of the ferry tickets.

Finally, at 8pm the ferry started to load. We were already tired, and once we loaded onto the ferry, I ate some cold Ramen noodles and fell asleep for the entire trip. It was pitch black outside, so there wasn't much to see, and I figured that we would get to see it on the trip back anyway.

Ferry sign.

While we were in Puntarenas waiting, we came up with some backup plans for when we got to Paquera and saw the road conditions. With an 8pm ferry, we wouldn't make it to Paquera until 9pm, and we wouldn't make it to Montezuma until 11pm. We were already reluctant to drive in the dark, so we wanted to make sure we didn't get stuck in the middle of nowhere, confused and lost. Our first option was to find a place in Paquera. Our second option was to find a place near Curu and just go on an Isla Tortuga kayaking tour from the wildlife refuge there. Our third option was to drive to Playa Tambor, which was closer than Montezuma and down a paved road. Our fourth option was to make it all the way to Montezuma.

When we actually arrived in Paquera, there were clear signs for Tambor and Montezuma, so it actually wasn't really a problem that it was dark out. We were driving along the coast, so even though we couldn't see the water, we could kind of sense it blowing in our direction and knew we were finally at the beach. We made it to Tambor in good time and then decided, what the heck, we'd go all the way to Montezuma anyway.

I was really happy that it all went so smoothly, because I kind of had my heart set on Montezuma already. It certainly sounded the best, and because of all of my research, I felt like I knew a lot about it, so that if we came across a hotel and wanted to know if we should stay there, I already had some idea about the price and the reviews that it got. I also knew some of the tour companies in town that would be able to take us to Isla Tortuga. After that I came to realize how important internet reviews really are, because even just knowing a little bit about the place made me feel so much safer and more comfortable staying there.

HOTEL LUCY

The final stretch of road in Montezuma was a little rough, but we made it to Hotel Lucy, which was the cheapest option in Fodor's at $24 a night. When we got there, I was pleased to find that there were rooms, and even more please that I was able to accomplish all of the check-in in Spanish with the security guard who was on duty. He was just such a nice guy, he put up with me getting exasperated trying to ask about Isla Tortuga tours, and actually I saw him getting in line for the ferry when we left two days later and said hi.

The room that we got was just okay. We had the choice of a nice cute little room with shared bathroom, or a similar but less cute little room with a private bathroom. We opted for the private bathroom, but the problem was that it had no door, only a curtain, so it made the room smell a bit musty the whole time. The other problem was that it had this useless window into the hallway from which you could hear all of the conversations that people were having on the porch. Still, we looked in the shared bathroom and thought it was disgusting, so we were glad to have gotten the private bathroom. To be fair, we're pretty sure the brown stuff was actually just wet sand, and it was gone the next morning after they cleaned. I think if we would have reserved or gotten there earlier, we could have gotten a nicer room with a beach view.

Despite the room (which was still a bargain at that price), the location was amazing. The little hotel was right on the beach with an adorable back porch, equipped with beach chairs and hammocks for lounging and watching the waves. Before we went to sleep, we went out back and walked around in the sand for a little while. The stars were crazy. Though they still weren't quite Belize stars, they did cover the entire sky, and for sure there were many more than any other place we'd seen in Costa Rica (probably because there were far fewer clouds at the coast to cover them up).

The nighttime sky.

Then we heard a bunch of tiny scraping sounds, and we discovered that there were thousands of hermit crabs crawling around everywhere. It was low tide, so they were all washed up on shore moving about amongst the rocks. It was like when the cicadas came to New Jersey, I was definitely glad to have my flashlight so that I could avoid stepping on them!