Vamonos a Monteverde

We arrived in San José after our business class experience at 11.45 local time July 5th. A small airport, where we quite quickly got through the passport check lines, to get our passports stamped. And the fun started - I noticed that the date in my stamp said "5 JUN", which even with my lacking Spanish skills was quite clearly wrong. So I asked the stamp guy, who for the next few minutes could only say "que mal, que mal" ("how bad"), while he and his supervisor were realising that the entire pile of entrance forms that he made that day, AND the stamps in people's passports, were wrong. Muy mal indeed. So now I have an extra Costa Rica entrance stamp in my passport...

Out of the airport, after a short luggage-missing incidence, which was quickly cleared, we decided to take a taxi to the center. We needed to catch a bus to our first destination, Monteverde, which also stopped in the airport, but we were warned that it could be full. So as we had time to spare, we took a taxi to the center, and then caught the bus from there - and indeed, it was full. We were very happy to NOT be one of those people standing all the 5 hours on a dark, bumpy ride up the mountains! 

The bus ride was fun, though. Lotte and I spent a lot of time practising Spanish, probably to the entertainment and later annoyance for the people around us. At least after a while, everyone would have caught that Lotte has a big sister ("Tengo una hermana grande"). We also started talking a bit with the others, sharing our travel plans and tips. And then at last, we reached Monteverde. 

Lotte with my Spanish dictionary

Monteverde is an area popular for its cloudforest, meaning that the humid air from the see precipitates over the mountains, creating clouds that come rolling over the hillsides and treetops continuously. It changes all the time - one moment you can see the top of the mountain, the next it is too foggy to even see 20 meters ahead. 

These two pics are taken just a few minutes apart.

We checked into our accommodation, Cabinas Eddy, where an amazing host, Freddy, awaited us. He gave us a lot of tips on what and when to do the various things the area has to offer, and made us feel at home instantly. It was late (around 8 PM), we were tired and heavily jetlagged, ate the bagels we had brough from Atlanta, and went straight to bed - completely exhausted.