Mortaine’s Blog

We left La Fortuna yesterday afternoon on the 2:30 Jeep-Boat-Jeep trip. This is the fastest way to get from La Fortuna to Monteverde, since there´s a big volcano and a man-made lake in the way of any direct roads. To go by regular roads is a 7 1/2 hour trip. This one was close to 3 1/2, but we had delays. The biggest one was a pair of fellow adventurers who missed the departing Jeep and had to be picked up and brought to the boat, which meant the boat had to come back to shore to let them board. No worries, though. We got into Monteverde at 5:30 PM and checked into Tina´s Casitas.

The Jeep-Boat-Jeep part of this trip was probably the most social for us. We met a few very nice folks. The aforementioned adventurers from Colorado, here in CR for 2 1/2 months and going to Monteverde to spend Thanksgiving with a friend of theirs and her Tico husband. A pair of nice (gay) men from Texas, who were very charming and, I swear, I really hit it off with them both. Great guys (and I´m not just saying that cause I gave them my business card!)

Crossing the lake was uneventful and pleasant, and we had some terrific views of the volcano; the weather was completely clear in La Fortuna yesterday. By the time we docked, however, the wind had picked up, and we entered Monteverde in the midst of a howling wind storm that rattled the tin roofs and stripped the warmth right out of me.

Tina´s Casitas was inexpensive, but there was something about it that I didn´t like. I can´t even put my finger on it, and it may simply have been that it coincided with the bad weather and came at the end of 2 hours in a jouncing jeep trail (the roads in Monteverde are deliberately kept unpaved to prevent overgrowth of tourism– it´s not helping much). Anyway, in response to my ill-ease, we moved on to the Treehouse Hotel, which is centrally located in Santa Elena and has two restaurants and a tour agency inside the building. Oh, and a 60 year old fig tree.

We saw a rainbow this morning on our way to the new hotel, and then again from our new hotel room. I think that´s when I knew it would be okay to stay there (well, that and laying on the bed and finding it didn´t hurt my back). Mind you, the reason for the rainbow is that Monteverde still has this windstorm going, and there´s also a lot of weather this morning which, to the untrained eye, might look like rain being blown sideways. Do not be fooled. The Costa Rican term for that is “mist.”

When this trip is all over, I´ll post pictures in my gallery pages, which is not the same place I post most of my pictures on LiveJournal (the LJ Scrapbook).

In the meantime, we´re gradually building an itinerary for the next 2 days, which includes a night walk, zipline tours, and shopping (finally getting all the souvenirs we´ve avoided having to carry!)

I hope everyone has a terrific Thanksgiving today. And a shout-out to , fellow adventurer and birthday girl!