Off To Tenorio ~ Drive Day

Tenorio National Park ~ the one that no one's heard of.
Not in the guidebooks.
Not really on the map.
However, the map is how I found it.
In researching our trip, I wanted to find three or four inland areas to explore.
Inland areas that were not too far apart.
Ones that conveniently divided the driving into four non-strenuous days.
Okay, we had Monteverde, had Arenal, Poas... what else is around...?
Tenorio Volcano National Park!
Where the aqua blue Rio Celeste is!

So up, adios to Monteverde and Carlos and the monkeys at The Quetzal Inn.
Up the hill to the "not the highway" gravel road.
A stop at Don Juan Coffee Tour to buy green coffee beans and who is that in the info booth?
The long haired frog tour guy!
That's two times in Monteverde we ran into people we had met before!
I love how my small world encompasses other countries...

Back onto the gravel road for miles.
And miles.
And miles.
To Dos de Tilaran where on my, what's this?
A paved road!
With a line down the center!

Then to Tilaran.
Fuel (that was fun).
And on to the South side of Lake Arenal!
Where the Longhorn Bar and Grille is conveniently located.
Not open yet, but the owners were happy to sell the boys some Costa Rica microbrews!
And I got to pet the puppy with the largest feet in the world...

So we were all happy!

But not as happy as we were when we got to drink real microbrew beer at The Tilawa Hotel and Microbrewery.

Jim was really happy.
Susan was happy watching us.
Lots of dirty barefeet.
Dreadlocks.
Hippie chick clothes.
"Dude!"
"Cool!"
and hand rolled cigarettes...
And why was this?
Costa Rica's version of Burning Man was to be at Tilawa in a couple of days.
Lots of "Dude's you sticking around?"
"Uh no".

Back on gravel roads.
Past the huge wind generators.

Past a billion baby cows.
Horses.
More baby cows.
Moo.
And finally on the paved road to Bijuaga!
Next stop ~ the small town of Bijuaga, rain and Tenorio National Park.

And Now for the "Scare the Crap Out of Ourselves" Part of "Scare the Crap Out of Ourselves Day"

It's called "The Tarzan Swing".
The finale of the Selvatura Zipline tour.
Yeehaw.
A little lightheaded wobbley walk from the last zipline around a few bends, over a hanging bridge to the sounds of screams.
Yes, screams.
Just follow the screams, yells and hysterical laughter and it will lead you to the Selvatura Torture Tarzan Swing.

Oh yay, more stairs up to a rather tall platform.
Where they double hook each person to a couple of lines hanging from something.
Something up above.
In my extreme case of fear, I don't know that I looked up at it.
I was watching the backs of the people crammed on the stairs inches in front of me.
And hearing those screams...
By this time there was a stack of people behind me.
No place to escape to.
Sort of like being in the middle of an elevator.
So up the rest of the stairs to the elevator like platform where we were pushing to be last.

Yeah, let's let Alan go first!
Then let's send Jim!
Then Susan!
And by that time, possibly I will have been able to climb down the side of the platform and get the hell out of doing this.
And no one will notice I didn't do it.

So off Alan went.
Laughing.
I can't remember the noise Jim made.
But Susan?
Susan who never says the words "Oh My Gawd" (only "oh my word")?
Here, listen for yourself:

Yep, it was "ooooohhhhhh mmmmmyyyyyyy gggggggggg".
Then "Ok, I did my scary thing for the day".
If you can hear that over my hysterical laughter.
Remember, I hadn't gone yet.

Selvatura ~ Either "Really Good Timing!" or "Scare the Crap Out of Ourselves Day"

Read the guidebooks!
They ALL say "No trip to Costa Rica is complete unless you do a zipline tour!"
Really, they all say this.
Or the one I have does.
I think you could fly to Costa Rica and fly back and your trip would be complete... but your fun and experience would not.

Anyway, after reading (but apparently not the fine priint) the brochures we headed up the hill to Selvatura.
A complete adventure park!
Hanging bridges!
Butterfly garden!
Frogs!
Ziplines!
Every way to empty your money belt of colones!
Gift shop!
Insects!
Nature walks!
We wanted the ziplines.
Ziplines only, even though they wanted us to buy more.
We got there just in time to be added to a tour.
A "tour"?
You mean there were specific times a day?
Only three?
Oops - got lucky and walked right into it.

Alan, Jim and I had done this when we were here four years ago.
It was the four of us and three zipline dudes.
Two to assist and one to take pics.
This time it was 40 of us and 8 or 9 interchangable tour dudes.
Completely different experience.

We sent Alan first to show Susan the ropes ziplines.

Fifteen ziplines.
Lots of laughter.
A couple people got stuck.
One lady had to have a tour guy go with her.
Scared, really?
I think she thought he was cute.
Kids laughing.
Everyone smiling.

Gross sweaty gloves.
Up hills.
Up steps.
Zzzzzzzzzziiiiinnnnnggggg sounds as people flew across the canopy.
Me with a totally smelly, sweaty (and not my smell or sweat) helmet.
And then the big, long ones.
The last couple lines were really, really long.
Especially the last one.
It was really, really, really, really, long.
Maybe one more really.
So long, they send you tandem.

Probably for a few reasons.
So you can't spin!
Which can be way dangerous (ask Jim how close he came to trees...)
So you don't get stuck in the middle and have to be rescued (ask Alan and Susan who didn't quite make it to the platform)
Time-wise to get all these tourists across and it doesn't take the entire day.
So you have backup to see the landing platform when your eyes are tearing from the wind (ask me who's legs were being blown sideways from the wind).
So you have backup to see the landing platform when you are laughing so hard you are crying (ask me about this too).

So when the guidebooks tell you "No trip to Costa Rica is complete unless you do a zipline tour!", I think they are pretty much right on.

Santa Elena Fun

Santa Elena and Monteverde are basically the same thing.
At the top of a really long, nasty, skinny gravel road.
Santa Elena is the town (all 2 blocks of it) to the North / NorthWest - eh some direction.
And Monteverde is really the area.
And the cool reserve with huge leaves and trees.
Santa Elena has a grocery store!
With wine!
Fresh bread!
Monteverde Cheese Factory Cheese!
Beer!
Snickers Bars!
And all of this in walking distance from the hotel!
Oh and an ice chest!
Ice too!
Needless to say we went into the grocery store a few times.
Once I even heard someone yell out "Heather".
Figured I was hearing things.
Jim said, "Yeah, you think you heard your name and know someone here".
So I looked around and there was Freddy from The Sloth Sanctuary waving.
At me.
HA!

Uh, what else.
Got the tire changed for...
Get this ~ $1.50 US!
Yes, one dollar and fifty cents. Did I mention that I really love Costa Rica?

Enjoyed killer dinners at El Marquez and Restaurant El Sabor.
Yum!

Enjoyed the butterfly gardens!

     

              

The flowers!

Absolutely beautiful!

We enjoyed the monkey show outside our breakfast room.

But didn't really enjoy the monkey show on top of our roof at 3 am...

Critters skittering around.
Dropping things.
Laughing at the humans below.
Dropping more things.
Skittering some more.
Roosters crowing.

And we enjoyed our makeshift bar...

Monteverde Leaf Cutter Ants

I just love these guys.

And girls.

I am sure there are girls amongst the guys.

Or one would hope...

They just don't stop.
Back and forth, back and forth.
The back ones bumping into the forth ones.
Sometimes the trails go on for an incredibly long time way whatever.
The trails can be indented into the hills and trails by inches.
Usually we would spot the trail before we would see the ants.
It's amazing to see how large a piece of leaf some of them can carry.
And the ant hills!
Holy crap ~ they are huge!

Night Hike and Sloth Sanctuary!

And now back to our regularly scheduled crap how we spent my birthday vacation in 20 billion words or less.

After our somewhat unexpected strenuous hike around the Monteverde Reserve, we "had" to stop at the Monteverde Cheese Factory.
"Had" to for their milk shakes and wonderful cheeses.
Sharp cheddars and goudas ~ perfect for hora felizes!

So back to Hotel El Bosque for naps, cold showers (the neglected to tell us they turn the hot water heaters off in the afternoons...) and their Night Hike!
With flashlights in hand, a guide and 4 other hikers off we went into the dusk on yet another trail...
With calves hurting...
More up, down, up, down.
It was great!
We saw agouti, coatimundi, raccoons, grasshoppers and other insects, a tarantula the size of a small volkswagen and the best part:
Hundreds of lightning bugs!
Then a sprint across the road to Cafe Cabure.
YUM!
We all had great meals ~ mine was chicken satay with an incredible house salad.

As Alan and Susan like to say:
It just keeps getting better and better!
And the next day it did!

Next stop, The Sloth Sanctuary of Monteverde.

No words can describe how wonderful this place was, but I will try anyway!
First of all, we found the Sloth Sanctuary by accident.
Just by driving by on the way to the Monteverde Biological Reserve.
Hmmmm... that place looks interesting!
And it was more than interesting.
It was amazing.
Incredible.
Over-the-top.
Better than better.
Instead of writing all about it and what we learned, learn for yourself here.

Cutest.
Faces.
Ever.

And then we came out to this:

Really, street tires on a rental car in Costa Rica just do not work.

We Interrupt the Costa Rica Re-Cap for: "A Question of Sanity Balance" Update...

They say the third time is the charm.
I think it's really the fourth time.

First Time:
The loss of his boat "Gloria Jean" on the Oregon Coast.

Second time:
Uh, sorry no link, just heard through the small world grapevine, Dr. Phil on "A Question of Sanity Balance" was towed into and assisted onto a mooring ball at Catalina.

Third time:
Refer back to prior post...
Assisted by Vessel Assist then towed into San Diego by the US Coast Guard.

Fourth time:
Rescued by the US Coast Guard somewhere off the Coast of Ensenada on his way to The Marquesas...
Torn headsail.
Both dinghies gone.
Amazingly enough the bicycle was still on board!
Dr. Phil and his dirty terrier, Nellie were out there when the rain and windstorm of the year came through.
We experienced 35-40 knot winds in the harbor.
I can only imagine what he experienced out there.
No food.
No water.
No survival gear, other than his ham radio.
San Diego Newspaper with Coast Guard video.
LA Times update.

But the best I found online?
The one that made me laugh outloud?
This post from a cruiser forum:

Hmmmm...
Let's take a closer look at that.Now let's take a look at a another prior post of mine.

In fact, I will make it really easy for you all.

Here is what I (ME!) typed:
Monday, January 17, 2011
"A Question of Sanity Balance" on her way...
Too bad we didn't put a "Spot" on this old man's boat.
Sure would be interesting to see how far he gets.
Where he ends up.
I believe he put his last boat up on the beach somewhere up North.First of all a giant THANK YOU to our friends ex-dock mates for sticking us with this old, dirty, deaf, grumpy man.
The people who used to own "A Question of Balance" had the boat on the market for years.
When they finally find a buyer, it happens to be this old, dirty, deaf, grumpy man.
No marina wanted him.
Boat is too small for a livaboard.
Boat has an alcohol stove.
So when the friend ex-dock mate threw a childlike fit in our office and parking lot, we buckled and gave the old, dirty, deaf, grumpy man 60 days to get his boat ocean-crossing ready.
60 days because "he's sailing to the Marquesas"...
Which turned into 90 days.
90 days of daily phone calls.
90 days of ordering and receiving packages and mail.
90 days of assisting, repeating, repeating even more loudly, yelling, repeating again, muttering not even under our breaths.
90 days of "good lord how can we get rid of him".
90 days of inappropriate comments, questions and conversations with him.

The conversation on Friday:
How do the sails look?
I don't know I've never put them up.
Why don't you do a little shake down cruise and head down to Channel Islands Harbor ~ it's only 5 or 6 miles down the beach.
What?
Why don't you do a little shake down cruise and head down to Channel Islands Harbor ~ it's only 5 or 6 miles down the beach.
Where's that?
Do you have charts?
What?

Sorry, Dr. Phil, but if you would just put your hearing aids in, I think this 90 days of you driving us crazy could have been avoided.

Showers and laundering your clothes would have been good too.Off to the Marquesas...
Or quite possibly Channel Islands Harbor.
Well, wherever he ends up we wish the marina staff patience.
Patience, the ability to repeat everything said, a lack of sense of smell and another boat scheduled for that slip in a few days.
We wish Dr. Phil clean clothes.
Success in getting somewhere.
We wish his dog would get a bath.
And that he remembers to put in his hearing aids.

Here is photo I (ME!) included:
Let's look at that cruiser forum post again, just to make sure:

Anyone other than me see a few correlations here?

Monteverde Cloud Forest!

A place on my bucket list!
Different than a rain forest...
A cloud forest!
And we were there...










Lush.
Epiphytes.
Trees.
Ferns.
Bromeliads.
Quiet.
Moss.
Orchids.
Vines.
Mud.
Trails.
Birds.
Steps.





Overgrown.

Strangler figs.
Tree roots.
Leaf cutter ants.
Fallen trees cut into stepping stones.Wet.
Views.The Continental Divide.




















Waterfall.
Stunning.
Amazing.
Breath-taking.

3.37 miles of up, down, up, down, up, down.
And around.

This is where we missed seeing a Resplendent Quetzal by 5 minutes...

And across the street, this critter, a kinkajou stealing the hummingbird juice out of the feeders.


Completely entertaining!

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...