The Road to Monteverde

We still had that jet-lag red-eye omg we are on vacation tiredness thing going on, but forced ourselves up and down to the breakfast buffet between 6:30 and 7:00 am.
Hey, we can sleep after vacation, right?
Somehow squished all of our bags, humans and gear into the "Gutless Wonder" aka "Hyundai Tuscon with street tires" and headed down highway.
After we found the highway...

Costa Rican Highway: Two lane road, often without a painted line down the middle

Stopped for supplies and yay, Costa Rican grocery stores not only take plastic, but have wonderful, clean and key word "working" toilets!

This is where the iPhones and Galileo app came into being our "new favorite tool".
Our paper maps were so minimal they didn't even list the town where the turnoff to the road to Monteverde was.
The Galileo app that the wonderful, smart, handy Jim had downloaded along with the maps for areas we were going to, actually showed all of the tiny dirt roads, the towns and even us ~ the blue dot!
This kept us for getting lost more times than I would care to admit.

Ok, road to Monteverde!
Seriously.
Gravel.
Rocks.
Potholes.And bicyclists.

Incredible views of the dryer lowlands and the Nicoya Peninsula.The hotel research we did paid off as well.
What we were going for:
Quiet, towards Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, internet, reasonable.
Hotel El Bosque.

Nothing fancy, but breakfast included, hiking trails, nice staff, night hike on property, incredible flowers and critters.Loved the sidewalks...A geez (nap) for Alan.


Susan, Jim and I headed off for a hike in the Children's Eternal Rainforest, where we did the Bajo de Tigre Trail ~ a one mile, self-guided hike.
Where we had a dog for the day...
But dogs aren't allowed.
Oops...
Had a dog from the Monteverde Cheese Factory decide we looked like suckers.
He followed us to the reserve, where he got tied up with yarn (yes yarn... like that's going to work) by the reserve guy.
Dog chewed through yarn, found us in the reserve, got dragged back up the trail by Jim and then got double tied with yarn.
Luckily followed some other suckers tourists out.

We enjoyed the hike.
Alan enjoyed his geez.
And then we all enjoyed hora feliz on our patio.

Next ~ dinner at Tramonti.
My oven baked pizza was great ~ rest of the dinners, eh just ok.
Fun walk back at night, with one flashlight.
To bed...