Howler Monkeys of Monteverde

We saw our first howler monkey during our hike to the base of the Arenal Volcano.  We saw a male howler monkey in the trees.  What was really interesting was his call, which sounds like a deep, long roar.  Howler monkeys are supposed to be the loudest of all monkeys.

We didn't see any howler monkeys in Monteverde, but we sure heard them.  Every morning, between 5:30 - 6:30am, they would begin their ritual calls from the valley.  From way up the mountain, from the balcony of our room, I could hear the howler monkeys announcing their awakening and presumably claiming their territory.

In the video below, IF you turn up your volume, you will hear a male howler monkey right at the beginning of the movie and in the middle.  The view is of Monteverde from our balcony; we were on the 8th level up the side of the mountain.  I took the video on Wednesday, August 13, at 5:42am, local Costa Rica time.

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.

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.