Tico Tales Part 4: To the Clouds

I had finally forced myself to leave Montezuma. All of the girls left too. We traveled on a sweaty bus for about an hour to Paquera to catch the ferry to Puntarenas.

not the ferry

The hour-long ferry crept across the Gulf of Nicoya. Along the way the Irish girls rationalized coming to Monteverde instead of trying to make it to La Fortuna. When we docked in Puntarenas, the bus to Monteverde was long gone. A Tica bonita from Montezuma that was going to see her mother and sister in San Jose had just missed the 11am ferry – the one that we would have had to have been on to make the Monteverde bus. She told me that the cab driver talking to me was offering a good price for the two-hour trip into the mountains and then disappeared into a car with her aunt.
Our cab driver was also an excellent tour guide and offered bathroom and photo stops along the way. He pointed out the forty year-old Puntarenas hospital, the mountainside view across Puntarenas and the Gulf of Nicoya, roadside hot springs that could cook an egg in six minutes, and countless tourist attractions that I can’t remember.
The road to Santa Elena is nothing but rock and dirt. The air became thinner and cool, and soon we were level with the rolling clouds. I stayed at Sleeper Sleep Cheaper – a kind of homestay-hostel run by Ronny, his wife Yoselin, their small children Daniel, Jazmin, and Jeremias, and the center of attention, their new puppy Camilla.
Monteverde is the name that a group of Quaker and pacifist settlers gave to the area when they expatriated in defiance of the Korean War draft. They later set aside much of the land as a biological reserve. The nearby Tico village is called Santa Elena. Tour vans, motorcycles and joggers alike zip around the winding mountain roads. Much of the area is protected land. For the hoards of tourists there are endless zipline adventure companies, observatories for everything from butterflies to bats, every range of accommodations, and tour and shuttle vans to get to any attraction in the area. After dinner I had coffee with the girls at the high-priced Treehouse Restaurant then turned in early. The next morning, after a hearty, complimentary breakfast, I explored the Reserva Santa Elena with Dutch traveler from the hostel. Life was very abundant. The moisture of the cloud forest helped the constant growing. Things grow from anywhere and everywhere. A constant cycle of growth, death, decomposition, and birth creates intense competition for a piece of the earth.

Arenal Volcano hiding under a cloud

After hiking rainforest trails all day, I pushed myself to tackle the Cerro Amigo – a one hour trek straight up to the highest point in the area where television towers are perched at 6072 feet. It was not a trail but a dirt road that went up at a constant angle. I struggled but forced myself to march on, racing the sunset and hoping for some break in the clouds to steal some sort of view. The wind got colder as I neared the top. At the top were the television towers, an ancient tourist sign, and several building. The only noticeable vantage point – which showed nothing but clouds – was next to a large wooden cross and small bench. I continued down the trail that ran between the buildings. The sound of a spinning washing machine came from the open door of the building on the right. Rubber work boots sat in the doorway. As I walked past the windows I noticed a small girl in front of a computer and a man sitting at a table, yet there were no vehicle or other signs of life anywhere in sight. The trail turned dark and muddy as soon as it entered the woods. It forked, and I took the path on the left, certain that it lead to a vista. But it only twisted deeper and darker into the forest. Soon common sense conquered my desire to explore, and I turned around while there was still a faint amount of daylight; I made it about halfway down the hill before I losing all light.
Later that night at a local rum bar I finally found Segua – a delicious red ale produced by Costa Rica’s only microbrewery, founded by three Americans in 2010.
The bus from Santa Elena to San Jose runs only twice a day: at 6:30am and 2:30pm. At two o’clock the bus was already full, so I had to take the local bus back to Puntarenas to catch another back to the capital – about six and a half hours total.