August 25, 2009: Monteverde

Liam: We woke up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready for our early jungle walk. At 6 we got breakfast from the hotel, it consisted of eggs, toast, fruit, juice, and coffee. After the breakfast we boarded a waiting bus to take us to the cloud forest. At the cloud forest we met our guide, Jonny, and started the hike. When we first started, we saw a lot of different kinds of birds, and then we continued walking down the path. On the walk we saw a frog, many walking sticks, some beetles, a lot of cool plants and trees, and at the very end Owen spotted a tarantula. When we got back to the information station, we got back into the bus and drove back to the hotel.

After a quick nap, we went to a Costa Rican fast food place, Super Pollo that Sean used to eat at a lot when he was here before. Owen and I got massive burgers and Sean got some fried chicken. When we were all filled, we walked up the hill, Sean took some pictures of old places he used to hang out at. Then we went to the serpentarium, it was too expensive though, so we soon left and walked back to the hotel. We got back and got ready for our tour of a coffee plantation. The tour was very fun; we saw sugar cane, plantains, bananas, and coffee plants. We also got to taste different things, we each got a piece of sugar cane to bite on, everyone got a little bit of sugar cane juice, we made some sugar cane candy, and we got cups of coffee and lemonade.

After the tour we took the bus back to the hotel. When we arrived, we got ready for the party that our group is having tonight. We walked downtown and got some drinks and snacks. When we got back we went up to the room to write this, now we are off to the party.

Owen: Liam just about covered everything today, but I will just fill in some details, and inform you on what we plan on doing tomorrow. Our Santa Elena Cloud Forest guide was had a great knowledge of the plant and animal life around the area. He was amazing at birdcalls, and would have a conversation with the birds! It was ridiculous. Anyways, we saw several very interesting species of animals and insects I had never heard of until this trip. One was the Crested Guan, which we had seen before, but this time we saw it closer and received more information about it, like how it only ways about 2 pounds but it looks massive! Bigger than a turkey! Apparently, the reasons why this is bird is so light is because the bones are hollow, and the have a very, very high metabolism. Their digestive system is one of the fastest in the world. Anyways, lets move on to the topic of insects. The most fascinating insect I saw today was the Glass Butterfly. The wings are transparent, and they are beautiful creatures, though they are hard to spot. One the way back, just off the trail, I spotted a giant tarantula! Everyone had stepped over it without noticing, but it was a lovely looking creature! We have several photos, and obviously, Sean had to touch it…

The area, the Santa Elena Cloud Forrest has been my favorite of the trip thus far. Seeing the clouds move down into the trees is a breathtaking spectacle to behold. It might not sound like much, but because of this, and paired with the wildlife, this place may just be my favorite one I have seen with my own two eyes so far.

The rest of the day was full of napping and eating and walking, until we took a trip to tour a coffee farm. It was fascinating. They did not just do coffee at this family owned farm. They also raised talapia (sp?) fish, trained oxen, grew bananas, plantains, and pineapple. The process of preparing coffee for sale is a long and painstaking procedure. First of all, the workers who pick the coffee are paid $2/16kg basket, of only red beans, mind you. The average Joe worker will only be paid about $10 a day. We saw the whole process, which is long and I don’t feel like typing out, but if you are desperate to know, don’t hesitate to look it up online. Next, we took a oxcart ride, sampled sugarcane, sugarcane juice, sugarcane caramel, and made our own candy using sugarcane caramel, chocolate, and coconut, which was a funny process and we took a video of it. We got to sample the best of the best coffee, some lemonade (that tasted like it had ginger in it, something my mom would like), and a root of some sort in a taco. That was the day this far, but I’m about to go to the tour party! Buh-bye!

Sean: Well I think the boys did a great job of covering today’s adventure. In fact, the only thing I have to add is that there was an awesome hummingbird area at the Santa Elena cloud forest. We got to see something like 7 species of hummingbirds dueling one another for control of the feeders. Ohh and the coffee farm had a sugar cane distillery model to show how the Costa Ricans used to make Guarro (a hard alcohol).

Our “party” was not too exciting. All of our tour members except for the honeymooners (Laura and Carl) joined up in the dining area of our fabulous hotel. We sipped a few beers, listened to music that Danny picked out from YouTube and talked about our lives back home. At 9:00 I had to rescind from conversation and use my computer to take part in my annual fantasy football draft.