Up to the Green Mountain We Go

After a fun couple of days in Arenal, we headed to Monteverde, which is north of San Jose and up in the mountains. First, we took a short boat ride across Arenal lake. We were lucky; the weather was absolutely gorgeous and we enjoyed views of the lake, and even got to see birds along the shore. We were told that the boat ride shaved 3 hours from our trip. The rest of the trip was by van, over some very bad, bumpy roads. It took about 3 hours.

Monteverde is an interesting place. It was settled by Quakers from Alabama in the late 1940s. Here, they were free to raise cows and produce milk and cheese. But in an effort to protect the watershed above its 1500-hectace plot in Monteverde, the Quakers agreed to preserve the mountain rain forests, or cloud forests as they are called here.

We arrived in Monteverde around 2pm, just in time for a torrential rainstorm, the first during our trip. We took it easy the rest of the day and had dinner at the fancy Laggus restaurant at our hotel, the El Establo Hotel way up in the mountains. It's a pretty steep ride from front desk to where our rooms are, so we have to take buses to and from the front desk, the restaurant, everywhere.

El Establo is a beautiful resort. Because of its location, we have magnificent views of the valley and it does feel like we are up in the clouds. The weather is very temperate; the room's don't have heaters or air conditioning. The architecture definitely feels European, with pitched ceilings, and a chalet style. There's a lot of granite everywhere, which makes us wonder if there is local granite in Costa Rica.