Monteverde

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The difference between the San Carlos bus terminal in San Jose and the one in Monteverde (Santa Elena) couldn’t show a bigger contrast. From hastily rushing through the polluted streets of the capital where toothless crackheads tried to stop me and scarcely dressed women sold their lady parts, my environment transformed into an oasis of lush green and tropical wildlife. The traditional slightly bewildered moments when you just arrive at a new destination (“Where to go, where am I, who are these people aaaahhh!”) were promptly interrupted by the exhilarated shouts of my Couchsurfing host Jon.

This guy appeared to be of great value to my stay, and why not, to my life as well. Intelligent, always smiling, super sweet and gay, I’m glad the world contains people like this. His house where he was ‘house-sitting’ turned out to be something else too... Couchsurfing brought me to a wide variety of local lodgements, from poor leaking apartments filled with love in the backstreets of town, to downtown lofts equipped with a gym and swimming pool. This time I had ended up in a gigantic wood carved mansion with many bedrooms, several bathrooms, a ballroom living room, cooking island and a surrounding soccer-court-sized garden. Not bad for a 24-year old... or for a broke backpacker.

I had only a few days before returning to the asthma-inducing capital, so while I was here I tried to take in as much fresh ‘n healthy mountain air as possible.

I kicked off with Santa Elena Cloud Forest, a place that could only be described by Rudyard Kipling in his incredible Jungle Book narrative.

Through the specks of mist I put one hiking boot in front of the other discovering 50 shades of green, not seeing one living soul for four hours... or actually I did, more than once I found myself lying on my belly on the walking paths, fascinatingly watching the brightly coloured insects crawling around in the environment that’s theirs, not ours.

It were not only insects I would admire these days: On the streets, in the trees and in the garden I would spot monkeys, armadillos, giant lizards and something that I could only identify as ‘djibouti’s’. Costa Rica is one amazing treasure of fauna.

Although I was warned to bring a poncho in this rainy part of the country, I made my way back to the house sweaty and sunburnt... As nature doesn’t come with street lights, obviously I got dramatically lost and added another 1,5 hour to the already 6-7 hours walking that day. The reward: My toe nail was beautifully coloured in purple, making the purchase of nail polish conveniently unnecessary. The wine and fresh snacks Jon, the other Canadian Couchsurfer Louis-Philippe and the twenty other students that came to party in the house prepared for me never tasted better after this midnight adventure.

When I woke up too early in the morning (but apparently not early enough), Jon greeted me with a “You just missed the toucan on the porch”, after which LP added “and the rainbow”. Hmmm, Monteverde might be even better than the dreams that prevented me from opening my eyes.

Over a traditional pinto breakfast I pondered my plans for the day. As I had already ziplined in Peru, Belgium , France (and in the meantime Brazil), I decided to skip the so-called ‘longest zipline in the world’ (which is actually in Puerto Rico, false marketing) and check out the Monteverde Reserve instead, right next to our Couchsurfing house. I only had to walk a few hundred meters to the right and take a turn... not to the left, like I did. Jon told me within a small hour I should be able to see the park, impossible to miss! I walked 1 hour... 1,5 hours... regretting every step I walked down on the absurdly steep non-path, knowing I had to walk it back up again... until I ended up in another village.

I knocked on a door and asked a friendly senior for some further directions to the park. Silence fell upon me, after which a sharp laugh echoed through the valley: “Niña, estas muy muuuuuuy perdida!”. My way up was going to happen a bit sooner than I had foreseen, as I was sent all the way back to find the right path on the other side of the mountain. Great. Going up required more physical fitness than I was equipped with, but I had no choice but accepting this torture in order not to sleep next to the snakes and spiders this rainforest was home of. However, to ease to pain I just had to look around me every now and then and take in the absolutely breath-taking views this unwanted detour had led me to. Once back at the house, dehydrated and sun-roasted, I looked at the attractive garden leering at me and I looked at my deep-purple toe nail and made up my mind: I kicked off my shoes, grabbed my book and positioned myself horizontally on the grass, looking out over the stunning landscapes of Monteverde.

In the afternoon, I made my way to some hidden hollow tree that you can climb from the inside. It appeared to be the worst hidden secret of town, as I had to wait for half an hour to climb this wonderful twist of nature due to all the tourists waiting in line, decorated in exotic Gore-Tex jackets and the well-known hippie travel pants. Even though the narrow claustrophobic whereabouts that were to follow caused me a panic attack, the monkey tribe swinging by made my visit more than worthwhile.

Time to go back to my own Monkey Tribe (hostel) in San Jose, there’s work that needs to be done. In the bus another traveller looked at me and said: “I feel... I want to live here. This is my kind of place."

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