Recently, my daughter Karen, 40 something mom of three, well actually two but we often count her husband as one of the kids, came a visitin’ from Chicago, and we all made the four hour trek to Monteverde, Costa Rica. With us was son Bill, his wifey and my granddaughter, Lucy all of whom live here.

I had the cool idea of renting a van and driver for the trip. Normally I drive, but there is a 10-15 miles stretch of nasty road and I figured I’d save wear and tear on the car and use taxis when we got there. Turned out to be a great idea. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often!

If this interests you, read on!

I figured we could take a cooler of beer and some munchies and sit back and be tourists! THAT is the way to go!

The trip took about 4 hours from our home near San Antonio de Belen. We arrived at Hotel El Establo right in the center of the action. OK action may be too strong a word here as Monteverde, while it absolutely should be on any tourist’s itinerary, is a bit short of really cool things to do after the first full day. Really, it makes a great 2-3 day trip max as after the horseback riding, the canopy tour, the tarzan swing, and the (poison) frog museam, there is not a whole lot more to do. OK there IS more to do if you are one of the eco-trekkking-hiking freaks. If you are, then the list is endless! I get tired even thinking of excercise and often just rest until the thought leaves my mind.

El Establo is a very nice hotel and very inexpensive compared to many hotels of the same quality. We did the suite thing, my daughter sleeping in the loft above us and ML and I below. Great views and the construction quality was first rate. “Why so cheap?” Thinks me. Nothing is cheap here… at least not for tourists. I soon found out.

Seems El Establo has two restaurants! I forget the names, but they should have been called “Really, Really, Expensive” and “Say the hell WHAT??”. “Say the hell What??” was the deluxe gourmet restaurant and we avoided THAT completely after having our first meal in “Really, Really Expensive” .

“Really, Really Expensive” had seating for perhaps 945 people and the prices were just silly. First meal… light lunch for five adults and my granddaughter (age 3) ran to about $155.00 and I did not even get a KISS from the cute hostess!

Now I knew how they could price the rooms so cheap. Guess they have to make it somewhere. Still, a LOT of people did eat there so we let them subsidize our suite while WE ate the The Treehouse and other spots. Hotel food B- Treehouse food B. Various others not remembered… B.

As I mentioned, I am not fond or excersize, so when all the others decided to go do the canopy tour thing, zip lining, the tarzan swing and horseback riding, I elected to sit on the balcony, read, nap and unwind.

The picture at the top of this post is daughter Karen. She was on the Tarzan swing. As you can see, she is enjoying it a lot. Brother Bill is yelling “Use the break!!!!” Bill is an instigator and so enjoys tormenting his big sister. To the right is Bill zip lining above the cloud forest. Note there IS a break on the zip line thingy. Poor Karen.

The REAL deal around Monteverde (for you outdoor types) is the horseback riding! For a stupidly cheap price, like $30.00, they were guided on a 4-5 hour tour through the mountains by truly excellent guides. Not sissy horses either. My campasina wife, who does know how to ride, said there was much trotting, galloping and sun glasses losing. Her nice guide rode back about 5 km to find them too! (The $200.00 sunglasses I mean).

All in all… great trip. It is very restful and we may well make the jaunt again. El Establo, while not expensive, is still more than many other hotels, so do your homework when choosing your place to stay.

Want more info?  Check out http://www.monteverde.org, the only web site I could find not trying to sell you anything.

On we go…. Part 2

So after a white-knuckle trip down the side of the mountain, we arrive safely at Savegre Mountain Hotel. I promptly attempt to register at the garage. A patient campasino informs me that guests normally register in the hotel lobby, and directs me to that location approximately 40 feet behind me. I try to come up with something clever to explain why I am trying to register in the garage, but I am suffering from some sort of stress thing, so I just get back in the car and drive the 40 feet. I have no idea why I did this, except it seemed important at the time to make a showing that I was not a total idiot.

Getting out of the car, the first thing that hits you as you step out of the car is the hummingbirds. It is not that the hummingbirds are rare here… they are not. But never are you going to see maybe 300 of them within 10 feet of you. Now I know why there are so few in my back yard. They are all here, and that 300 number pales when you learn there are 4-5 more locations where they are congregating around feeders in equal numbers. I took a bunch of crummy pictures, but if you want to see them, click here.

We check in without further delay and are directed to our cabin, a spacious thing with a ceiling about 50 feet above the floor. The reason for this becomes clear when I build a fire in the fireplace only to discover that Ticos may not fully grasp the concept of a vent or of drafting. Our cabin fills with smoke, so we decide to take walk.

There are numerous trails where you can see an enormous amount of wildlife. Wildlife here means birds as the other wildlife, like the monkeys, have all died years ago… most from falling out of trees laughing at gringos building fires in the cabins.

One of the trails (senderos) is about 25 KM long (about 16 miles). We give that one a pass. Anything that long requires a motor vehicle or a thinner person.

On the way, I am told that there exists a tree where the Quetzals come to chow down on avocados. I am also told I must arise early in the morning at first like in order to catch them on film. I decide this would be cool, so I make plans for the next morning if I have not passes on due to smoke inhalation.

The smoke has cleared from the cabin, so ML and I return to await arrival of friends Ray and wife Patricia. Ray is the one who discovered this place and I must admit… he hit gold. The Rio Savegre area and h0tel simply sucks the stress right out of you. Normally, it takes me 2-3 days to relax, but for some reason, this is happening in minutes.

R and P show up with a supply of munchies and various beverages all of which contain alcohol. As it is now raining, we spend time in front of the cabin allowing nature and the Seagrams to do their thing.

Dinnertime!

There is only one meal plan here… all meals included. This is, of course, because there are no restaurants withing 200 vertical miles. We head over to the restaurant coincidentally located 45 feet in front of the garage, and are treated to a large buffet containing the usual Tico fare of rice, beans, fish, chicken, funny meat, and tiramasu. While this restaurant will never win any awards for fine cuisine, it is certainly quite acceptable… acceptable enough that I make 2-3 return visits.

There is no nightlife here. You are expected to commune with nature then go to bed. We decide this is OK so we all head off to our cabins. A small surprise is that it is now cold! I mean REALLY cold… like 40 something. Blankets are not going to be enough so I decide to build another fire. We open all the windows and I do my thing.

So after deciding to sleep on the floor…

The Quetzal!

OK, morning arrives and I am off camera in hand to capture a photo of the evasive, reclusive and ever resplendent Quetzal.

I clump my way up a short trail to the Quetzal tree. Now I have no idea why I would think there was not already Quetzal IN that tree, but I do know I have no future whatever as a wildlife photographer. As I draw near, a brilliant flurry of blue, red, and green blasts out of the Quetzal tree and disappears into the forest.

Nuts!

Now I have no idea why I would think there was not already ANOTHER Quetzal in that tree, but now I am SURE have no future whatever as a wildlife photographer. As I draw closer, another brilliant flurry of blue, red, and green blasts out of the Quetzal tree and disappears into the forest.

(Bad word.. much worse than “Nuts!”)

Ok… perhaps the pros find a semi secluded place from which to watch the damned tree and try to remain silent? I do this, and after maybe 15 minutes that feels like 15 hours, a Quetzal flies back to the tree and promptly hides on the opposite side of the trunk. I am patient however, and after another five minutes, the little devil pops his furry head around the side of the trunk. Their heads look like a green fuzzball… about the size of a walnut. Odd since their body is much larger and their tails are about 2-3 feet long!

I snap about 342 photos hoping to get 1-2 that are decent. I am pretty sure the pros get their shot the first time. Above right and left are a couple that at least do not totally suck. Click any to enlarge.

Saving wildlife.

After breakfast, we hear our neighbors yelling. It seems a wild parakeet has flown into their (close) window and has died.

“Not so”, says my wifey.

As regular readers here and in my personal BLOG know, ML is a country gurl and loves all living things regardless of how many legs they have. She races to get to the dead bird.

“Aha! Not dead”, says she. “All we need to do is blow air up its butt!”. I am translating this rather loosely from the Spanish!

If this were any other person than my wife, I would advise treatment of some sort, but for now, I keep quiet and watch her as she blows air up its butt.
She does this far maybe 2-3 minutes (not actually touching here lips to that area I might add). The bird begins to move a bit and in another moment, spreads it wings and takes off!

I am fairly sure this technique is not taught at the leading veterinary schools in the USA, but to watch this is pretty amazing. It also beggars the question as to who was the first person to try this technique and how on earth that thought came into their mind in the first place.

Ok…. that’s it. Another fun weekend coming up soon. This place costs $200.00 per night including all meals… less if you elect to rent a cabin without the fireplace.

So ML tells me it is time for us to go somewhere. To getaway for a few days. I suggest the beach but she wants the mountains. I must have the only Tica wife that really could care less about going to the beach!

A little investigation gives me a name of a place 9 KM (6 miles) off the Pan American Highway going south toward Panama. This is located along a stretch of road know as el cerro de la muerte or roughly “the hill of the dead”. I am not sure from where came that name, but maybe from the fact that a bunch of folks get killed there every year because the winding mountain road becomes shrouded in fog and rain most afternoons year around. The trick, of course, is to drive it in the morning!

So reservations are made at the Savegre Mountain Hotel for the next weekend, and we start getting excited… until we realize there is nobody to watch the house while we go play in the mountains. This problem gets resolved when housekeeper Maritza says she’ll spend the time guarding the house and feeding the animals, so the planning begins. We will leave early in the AM to avoid the fog and rain on the cerro de la muerte.

We start the trip directions in hand and head south. We must pick up the Pan American Highway after Cartago. This is normally simple, but there was an unexpected problem when the idiot behind the wheel (ummm… that would be me) took a wrong turn that took us on scenic but incredibly boring tour of Cartago’s open aire market.

Back on the road, we map read to discover that we must find kilometer marker 80 where we will make a right turn to pick up the 9 km road that leads to the hotel. I see no markers, but my eagle eyed wifey does… little stone thingy’s that could pass for gravestones for really tiny dead people. We begin the count them as we head up the mountain.

Now I like to sort of be prepared, so as she counts them off, I subtract that number from 80 and add it to the trip thingy on my odometer! That way, I will sort of know when KM 80 is coming up!

This process probably would work well in any country, but somehow I have forgotten I live in Costa Rica.

She reads off “KM 33″ so I do the math (80-33= 47) and add 47 to my odometer 230 + 47 = 277!

This works quite well until we travel another 3-4 km and she cheerfully reads off “KM 41″. “Ummm, are you sure? That is not possible!”, says I. After a short fight (that she wins), and another maybe 2 km, we reach the next grave marker. “KM52″ says she! HUH???

It is clear my system will only work if there is some relationship between the km markers and reality. I sort of give up. We sit in peace for a while until she sees KM 65. “Cool” thinks I. Only 15 klicks mas!

After traveling at the most about 1 KM, she screams “There it is! KM80!”.

She is right. There is the marker and 200 feet later we see the road we seek leading off to the the right… as advertised.

I make the turn, and we begin heading toward our final destination. The hotel provides a helpful description of this last 9 km: “…until you reach kilometer 80, where you take a detour to the right for 9 kilometers on well-maintained country road, finally reaching the slopes of the Savegre River – your tranquil destination.”.

The key phrase here is “well-maintained country road”.

This road actually is in pretty decent condition. Left off is the small fact that you are almost vertical as you descend.

This might be nerve wracking to some, but you can be comforted by the fact you can’t really go very fast as there are maybe 73 hairpin (180 degree) turns as you descend. Also, as there are no guardrails protecting you from the maybe 800 foot vertical drops, you do tend to keep the car in first gear as advised by the numerous road signs.

So this is how our weekend adventure starts!

I will post Pt 2 or “How Tim screws up twice while trying to take a photo of a Quetzal“, perhaps tomorrow… and maybe with more pictures!

Thanks to those who tested the site. Reading the same old pages for errors is booooring, but you really helped!

Anyway… here it is: The REAL Costa Rica

Enjoy!

So this week, I will be publishing a NEW Real Costa Rica. It is in Beta right now being checked by friends and volunteers. The design is totally different. The menu system has been revised again, new photos have been added, the 30 or so pages that were added since last year will now be available in the menu system (can you imagine!) instead of having to find them by using search, and finally, a whole NEW search engine will be installed. Some pages will download faster.

Another new thing… the site is now just too big for me to handle and increasingly, I am getting more detailed questions on a bunch of topics where I am not expert. For this reason, I am looking for volunteers to edit and maintain a specific subject, like maybe the pages on Surfing, Religion, or others, so if you have knowledge of a specific topic about Costa Rica, please contact me.

I cannot post the URL (web address) as I do not want the search engines to visit the Beta location, but if anyone wants a sneak peek… let me know.

Well DUH!

Jut kidding…

I say “kidding” not because this article did not appear but because even the dimmest bulb who lives here in the valley has known about this forever!

There has been no urban planning here that anyone knows of with the possible exception of kicking a few vendors off the streets so the tourists are not inconvenienced.

As for dealing with the polluted air and water, not to mention the sewage and waste collection problems (can you say TIBAS?), absolutely nothing. Traffic builds, streets are at time impassable and nobody is doing anything and the air smells like Denver or LA. So much for paradise.

The report goes on to recommend that by 2018 the government should build at least 21 kilometers of new roads to meet the growing number of vehicles. Do you think that might just contribute to the contamination of the air?

Interesting too is that 2018 is about the year the US Social Security system will tank if nothing gets done by OUR useless congress and the endless procession of bozo presidents we have had since Harry Truman… but I digress…..

It (remember, the report?) also states that because of the growth in population, we will need at least 335.000 new homes. Mas ca-ca to be flushed into the already stressed sewage treatment facilities. I bet the folks around Jaco and Manuel Antonio are thrilled.

UCR thinks.. and perhaps with some cause… that anarchy will reign, services will decline and there will be hostilities between the rich and poor.

Imagine criticizing the endless stream of incompetent presidents, congressmen and other pols!

Gee… Sounds just like the USA!

We’re attending classes at the Monteverde Institute, and living with a new family for the week that we’re here. The closest town is Cerro Plano, which is a very small rural town. The town really consists of one street, along which there are a few hotels and restaurants. It’s about a 20 minute walk from Santa Elena, which is a small town that is only slightly bigger than Cerro Plano.

I love it here! The town is nestled amoung beautiful rich rolling hills, and has some of the most spectular sunsets I’ve ever seen. Everything has a small town feel, and all the pepople here know each other by name. The Ticos here are especially nice, and life runs at a much slower pace than in Heredia. Many of the other students in my group prefer Heredia, because there is more to do. I, however, am a country person at heart and fit in really well here.

There is a pretty booming (relatively) tourist industry here, and there are almost as many Gringos as Ticos. There is plenty to do in the way of nature walks, but not much of a night life.

Yesterday we went on a skywalk, which consists of walking through rainforests on suspended bridges. It was very beautiful, and we had a guide who was very friendly and knowledgable about the flora and fauna. We took a guided tour through a cloud forest today, which was also a lot of fun. The tour through the cloud forest reserve was much longer, and I would only recommend it for those who can walk uphill for more than 2 hours. I thought the latter tour was more interesting than the first, mostly because it was longer and we saw more of the forest. We spotted a lot of birds, including the endangered Queztals (sp?) and various different types of wrens and hummingbirds.

If you’re thinking about coming to Monteverde, I would certianly encourage you to do so, and I have three tips:

1. Bring a raincoat! There are only two seasons here, rainy and windy. It’s the windy season right now, and it still rains at least once a day.

2. Because of the above mentioned rain, bring more than one pair of shoes, and be sure to include at least one pair of hiking boots.

3. Be sure to take the time to stop and talk to the locals here. They are very knowledegable about the area, and love to talk about their culture. Many of them speak English if you need it (especially those who are younger), and if you are trying to improve your Spanish they will take the time to slow down their Spanish and help you with the words you need.

We are going back to Heredia on Monday, so hopefully I’ll be able to post a link for pictures of both Heredia and Monteverde then. Until then Pura Vida!

I stumbled upon this copyrighted article the other day, and have been trying to verify the facts a bit before I wrote this. Sadly, neither the University of Alberta nor the magazine Nature seem to make any reference to this important information. I am presuming there is only one Nature magazine.

Nasty little headline and lead paragraph, and if true, this is pretty damning. I say “if true” as while I do believe in the effects of global warming, I also know there are those… let’s call them alarmists… who tend to cause more harm than good by constantly issuing doomsday scenarios that never seem to actually occur nor can they be verified. I tend to think though, that this report is factual though I find it odd that newspapers here have not picked up the story. Continuing…

“An estimated 67 per cent of 110 species of the Monteverde harlequin frog have vanished from the mountains of Costa Rica in the last 20 years, along with another amphibian, the golden toad.”

Another incredible statement!

In an interview with David Howell of The Edmonton Journal, Associate Professor (and Costa Rican) Arturo Sanchez stated, “”Sixty-seven per cent of all the species in the family are literally biting the dust,” and, “It shines a light on the importance of getting a clear understanding of how global warming is affecting tropical environments.”

Sanchez and his graduate students began by trying to interpret about 30 years of accumulated data, NOT on temperature changes, but instead to find out the effect of deforestation, a continuing problem in Costa Rica. Deforestation, it appears was not they problem with the frogs. Rather, the evidence of temperature increases were found to have (possibly) caused the problem as between 1975 and 2000, land temperatures in Monteverde have increased by 0.18 C per decade which has encouraged growth of a fungus that attacks the frogs.

J. Alan Pounds, Resident Scientist, Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, and Head, Golden Toad Laboratory for Conservation (GTLC), Costa Rica and the lead author of the study, confirmed the higher average air temperatures in the region are responsible for the spread of the fungus according to a related article.

Related: See this

For a ton of other related articles, click here.