Our transfer from La Fortuna to Monteverde was “jeep-boat-jeep”. OH BOY were we in for a treat. Little did we know this was going to be the biggest, most unforgettable adventure of our lives. We got on a bus which was going to bring us to our boat, which kept driving along the coast with no dock in site. News for us…there was no dock, the boat was just pulled up on shore and they threw our luggage on for us and we were on our way across Lake Arenal. The view of the volcano as we drifted away was absolutely breathtaking. We thought we were in a Jurassic Park movie in that moment.
As time passed the water was getting a little choppy as a storm was rolling in. The sky got darker, the wind was picking up, and we were getting anxious because we wanted to get off the boat before the rain started. We slowly approached an inlet where there was a wooden stool AKA our dock! There was no one there to help us with our bag, so we had to lug our luggage up a gravel path to charter buses waiting for us. This is where the adventure actually began. The rain began, and we quickly realized that the gravel road the bus was parked on was going to be the road for the rest of the journey. This was probably the most terrifying ride of my life. We scaled the mountain edges in a charter bus, and often the tire was inches away from the edge…hundreds of feet above the ground below. I think my heart rate was 180+ BPM the whole time. Finally we were about an hour away from our drop off point when we got Costa Rican coffee at sunset.
We got to our drop off point pretty late and our airbnb host drove us up the the highest peak of the area where our rental was located, in Rainbow Valley. It was so dark and windy up there we had no idea where we were until we woke up the next morning and saw the breathtaking views.
The first thing we had planned that morning was a coffee tour at Don Juan. Who knew that coffee beans came from what looks like a red berry that grows on a bush! We learned so much on the tour, not only about coffee, but also chocolate and sugar cane.
After the tour we decided to go to lunch in town. We picked a local spot called Sabor Tico, with more authentic Costa Rican food. The food was very good.
We got back to our airbnb just in time to enjoy our first sunset at the house and it was beautiful. Pictures don’t even justify how amazing the sunsets and sunrises were.
After the sunset we went to Ristorante D’ Thomas to have a nice Italian dinner. Monteverde, as well as the rest of Costa Rica was very tourist driven. Their whole economy basically runs on tourists, so they had a lot of different restaurants. Everything from Italian to sushi places.
The next morning we were off to Selvatura Adventure Park to hike some hanging bridges. It was beautiful, another instance where pictures didn’t do justice.
After a long morning of hiking we were off to a cute brunch stop called Orchid Coffee Shop. Turns out, there was one in La Fortuna and we didn’t even know.
Later that night we went on a night hike to see the creatures that come out at night. We saw a sloth and a poisonous viper among other creatures that are nocturnal. We definitely went out of our comfort zones that night.
After our night walk we decided to try a taco place that we had passed earlier that night. It was called Taco Taco Taqueria. We spent the evening enjoying some Mexican food, which was pretty good. They even had beer flights with a surprisingly extensive beer list.
The next morning we were just going to go explore, with no real plans in mind. We first stopped for breakfast at the lodge down the road from out rental. The lodge owner told us to check out Sky Adventures Monteverde Park, where we could see more hanging bridges and take a gondola ride up into the mountains above the clouds. It was an excellent recommendation!
Afterwards we had definitely worked up an appetite and we were off to a restaurant called World Street Food. Sounds better then it was. Their fryer was unfortunately broken and they couldn’t make a number of things on the menu. Their service was also slow. Later that night we enjoyed our LAST sunset in Monteverde over a bottle of wine and had dinner at Sabor Tico again since it was one of our favorite food spots in Monteverde. It was a perfect Christmas Eve!
Our final morning we were able to see a breathtaking rainbow with the moon as we walked down to the lodge to wait for our transportation to our next stop: Tamarindo!
🖤
Living My Best Life 