The Cloud Forest

On Wednesday, we had another early morning so that we could leave for the Monteverde Reserve by 7:00am. It's brutal getting CJ up by 6:00am so that he can be dressed and have eaten breakfast by that time. It took a lot of cajoling and bribery, but we did it.

We took a short van ride to the Monteverde Reserve. This ride was even bumpier than our last ride to Selvatura, if that's even possible. We are told that the locals do not want the roads to and from Monteverde paved to discourage hordes of tourists coming to visit. It's definitely true that large buses are not going to survive on these roads and it's likely that some types of travelers will be deterred by the bad roads.

Monteverde Reserve

We were lucky that day at the Monteverde Reserve. It had rained our last two days, but today was glorious. Our guide Ricardo is a first-generation Quaker. His dad is a Quaker from Alabama who founded a dairy farm and helped create the Monteverde Reserve. Ricardo was our guide for four hours. He told us about the primary forest, the pioneer forest (which was planted after the fields were converted back to rainforest), the plants, the trees, the bugs, and the animals. We didn't see any monkeys, but we did see a black guan (bird), a green toucan, lots of butterflies, and lots of beetles and caterpillars. Miraculously, it didn't rain; it would have been less fun and perhaps a little treacherous on the path if it had been raining.

We crossed one hanging  bridge in the rainforest.  A sign warned that only 10 people can be on the bridge at the same time, so we were careful when following another group.

We visited the hummingbird garden at the end of the tour. Mom says the hummingbirds were remarkably well behaved, meaning they weren't fighting and sipped from the feeders very nicely. I know nothing about hummingbirds; they all seemed beautiful to me. We saw blue ones, green ones, purple ones.

Food, Glorious Food

After the cloud forest tour, we got dropped off downtown and lunched at a most unusual place. The Tree House restaurant, which literally has a tree growing in the middle of the restaurant. There is no front wall or roof in part of the restaurant, which means that when it rains, you can only eat in the small, enclosed area. The tables among the branches were taken, so we sat in the enclosed area and enjoyed yummy smoothies and beans and rice.

Rice and black beans is a staple at very meal - breakfast, lunch and dinner - and it is delicious. Other staples are plantains (yum!), chicken, eggs and coffee. We've enjoyed some great food here.

Alex decided to stay and relax at the hotel, so the rest of us ventured out to dinner. Mom, dad and CJ went back to Chimera (because CJ said he loved the chocolate mousse and mom loved the shrimp sambal), so Maki and I had a rare night alone at Sofia, Chimera's sister restaurant around the corner. OMG, the food was just as good here. I had a roasted sweet potato and plantain soup, then shrimp with green mango slaw. The best part of the meal had to be the mango ginger mojito - amazing. Maki's cinammon-crusted pork chops were to die for. Food is an important of every vacation for us, and we have realy enjoyed our dinner these past couple of nights.