monteverde | My Travel Blog

Monday morning I headed to the Monteverde Reserve with two girls I had met at another hostel. We left early enough to beat the tourists, or so we thought! There were still a lot of people about. We were advised with the time we had to do two trails; one about 2 hours long and the other about an hour.

Before entering the reserve we made a quick visit to the Hummingbird Garden.

The reserve is beautiful. It is very touristy but you can tell that the most important thing is the nature preservation.

This always fills me with confidence…

We were lucky to see lots of wildlife: lots of birds and butterflies, an anteater, a raccoon, snakes and my favourite- the elusive quetzal. It’s the national bird of Guatemala so I’ve been looking out for it for almost two months!

After a quick lunch the adventure began! I zip lined, super manned and Tarzan swung myself over the top of the jungle!! It was so scary but so much fun. I loved it!

Today was more relaxed! Jitteke and I took the bus to the waterfalls 11km from Tilaran. They’re on a private property and when we arrived we were the only two people in the whole place.

They are absolutely immense. The tallest one is over 100ft tall. So we were truly dwarfed by them.

It was so peaceful and so nice to be the only people there.

We thought we were the only people anyway, so rather than carry our shoes we decided to leave them on a bench. Only to return less than an hour later and they had disappeared. We were both convinced the other had hidden them! But no! We asked a few people but no one knew where they were and just laughed at us…how can two pairs of shoes disappear?! We had to walk back to the entrance – a good half hour over stones and gravel – where we asked again. Oh yes, they say, we thought you’d forgotten them.

Pura vida!

Tomorrow I’m going to Puerto Viejo, near the border to Panama, in search of the three toed sloth.

I began my trip from Managua to Costa Rica on Saturday morning. It didn’t start well: I left my towel in the hostel (with only 3 weeks to go, how annoying) and then having thought I was in plenty of time for the 8.30 bus, I realised I had misread the lonely planet and the bus was leaving as I arrived at the bus station!

On the bus I was assured that yes, chica, the bus was directo to the border, only to be told after 10 minutes waiting in Rivas that I had to change!

So far so good…

Next…the border. As soon as I was off the bus vultures descended. It’s been the same at every border crossing so really I should be used to it. But having not slept well and being the only gringo in sight they managed to scam me out of $6 for a piece of paper you’re given at immigration anyway! (And yes, I know $6 doesn’t sound much, but considering a nights accommodation doesn’t cost much more I felt robbed!)

Cue tears and frustration at the immigration desk! I was rescued by Jessica, a lovely Costa Rican woman who also happened to be going to the same town as me.

I arrived in Liberia tired and weary but since I only had a few hours before leaving early the next morning I decided to make the most of it.

I went to a small restaurant run by a local cooperative, giving employment to women in the town. The food was delicious and the ladies really sweet.

The town was nothing special; the usual Parque Central and church.

The next morning, to add injury to insult I was up for the 6am bus to La Irma. But I was then told it left at 6.30, then 6.45. When I then asked at 7 where it was I was told it had left at 6.30. So on the 7.45 bus I was… Which meant I missed the connecting bus to Monteverde by about 5 minutes. With the next bus not until 3.30pm (it was only 9.35) there was nothing holding me back! Without thinking I run up to a 4×4, and ask Dad and two sons to pursue the bus. Challenge accepted we raced along the roads in hot pursuit of the bus!

Luck was with us and about 20 minutes later we caught up with the bus!

Safely on the bus the road up to Monteverde had stunning views.