Arenal to Monteverde

We checked out of the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa early this morning to make our way to the next stop on the trip. Monteverde is known for its Cloud Forest Reserve. The town on Monteverde was established by Quakers from the USA who moved here in 1949 to avoid being drafted in the Korean War. The were granted stewardship of a large area of land for farming and set aside a considerable portion for the today’s Cloud Forest Reserve. Monteverde is 1400 metres above sea level and gets about 3 metres of rain every year, can be quite humid and is often shrouded in clouds. Strangely, we’ve seen more blue sky here today than any of the other places we’ve been to in Costa Rica.

Monteverde is accessible by road from Arenal, but you have to drive right around the Lake, which would take around 4 hours. The tour buses all drop people off to catch a boat across the lake (about 45 minutes) and the drive another 90 minutes, to make it a more interesting and shorter trip. The lake has a rich array of bird life and with a little rain on the way there was a rainbow appearing on the water, which was quite spectacular,

Following our trip across the lake we piled into buses for the rest of the trip. The roads are unsealed and in pretty poor condition for the amount of traffic they carry, which results in a fairly hairy ride. The road runs along the central dividing range of Costa Rica which is an ideal place for wind turbines. We passed a good sized wind farm across a number for properties. Costa Rica generates about 10% of its power needs with wind farms.

We settled into the hotel which is a unique property built on the side of a hill. It has all the usual things, except a working fridge and air-conditioning. The rooms are large and functional. Tonight’s activity was a night walk followed by dinner at the restaurant. The night walk was led by a local guide who knew all the good places to find all sorts of insects and other creatures in the night. He was knowledgeable and we were amazed by the number of things he was able to show us. Incidentally, the snake is viper and is a poisonous one.