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Costa Rica: day 5 - Monteverde & Onward

Woke at 5:30. Coffee, breakfast - the usual.

The view from our terrace. You can slightly see the Gulf of Nicoya.

This is the outside of our room.


Today we drive to Quepos and drop off the rental car. We'll stay at Villa Nicolas in Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio is another popular, tourist destination - a beach destination.

I think you have to stay in one location at least 2 nights. I could see staying in Monteverde 3 or more nights. I suppose in Monteverde you just need your room to be functional and clean because there are so many activities to do outside your hotel.

We stopped at the Frog Pond again since the ticket was good for two days and took more pictures. Next time we should come at night, to see the frogs that may be more active at that time. Our small, lightweight flashlights worked great for this trip (Gerber Cornea from REI - LED, light has a bluish cast).

The Blue Jeans Dart Frog. It's Spiderman in frog form!




Black and Green Dart Frog.


We got off to a pretty late start - it was about noon before we headed out of Monteverde. We weren't successful in finding a gas station before departing. One showed up on the GPS and on a map of Santa Elena/Monteverde, but apparently it had since closed down. The closest one was an hour-long ride of "hold on to yer butt" craziness on unpaved roads. It rained most of the way there and very hard at times. Insane drivers! Also, one must always be on the lookout for los perros locales, cows, little kids, escuelas, and tremendous potholes!

The roads later became paved and decent for the most part, but the drivers were still frustrating. They hug the line, go over the line, don't use headlights in the pouring rain, tailgate. You know, like Houston. We finally made it to the gas station - $42 for a fill up.

The drive was scenic though, especially the part just out of Monteverde - it's absolutely breathtaking with the green mountains and low clouds, but quite scary with steep drop-offs!







So the route on our GPS around this point just eerily ended, as if we had made it to the end of the line. And here, below, was the so-called end of the line: a really rickety bridge that said "under construction." So...we weren't instilled with a lot of confidence. "Under construction" - should it or should it not be crossed? Well, the vehicle in front of us would answer our question.


next post > day 5 - Manuel Antonio & Villas Nicolas
previous post > day 4 - Monteverde Frog Pond
first post > day 1 - Adventure, Exploration and Relaxation

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