Friday, November 11, 2011

Another one rides the bus – Weird Al


Charlie writes: First, an apology about load times for this page. I had a computer crash two days before leaving, and in my scramble to assemble one to carry, I forgot to load my picture compression software. The result is big files for photographs; however the blog is pretty boring without pics. I’ll work on the problem when we get to Cahuita.

After breakfast of fresh fruit and the worlds best French toast, we boarded the enduro-bus to Monteverde. O.K., that’s not its real name, but after 4 hours bouncing on really bad gravel roads, through twisting mountain passes with sheer drops at the side, we were at the end of our endurance. Views were spectacular, and we had perfect weather for it.

This is coffee country, and the mountain hills are covered with the plants. Monteverde is a forest reserve; where a bit of tropical jungle survives on a mountain top, complete with sloths, monkeys, and coati. And we are staying right in the middle of it, outside Helena. We can see the Pacific Ocean from our front porch, and the night hikes to see wildlife leaves from our back yard.
Here’s the pacific from our front porch.

Dianne says: OK, so, we’ve been in the bouncey bus for two and a half hours when I see a sign that says Monteverde 29 km. I was so excited because with only 29 km left I knew we would be there one and a half hours earlier than the bus driver had told us. YAY!

Well…..at this point Mr. Busdriver turns off of the paved road onto gravel. Now the paved roads here are basically gavel roads with pretty large patches of paving. Smoooooooth!!! A gravel road, well….No pavement and not smooth. The road was so bad that it took us an hour and a half to go 29 kms. Man every muscle I own is sore and now we are going on a two hour hike in the dark in the jungle. I live with crazy people!!!!! People say I’m the crazy one in this relationship but no…..I!!!!! Am!!!!!! Not!!!!!!!

Night hike!

Whoa cool or what? We were all handed these dim flashlights so we could see the ground. Our tour guide had a bright one to point things out for us. It was amazing! We saw many different birds sleeping, bugs and giant moths and a heard of animals who’s name I have forgotten (Coati). They are cute little fellas and although they are nocturnal we’ve seen the odd one wander around during the day.

But then I had a cool God thing happen. I know the sound that a thrush makes, but I have never seen one. I look and I look but they are hard to find. So I ask God to show me one and……..nothing. Oh well sometimes God is busy. Well we went on our hike in the dark and one of the guides finds a sleeping thrush in a tree. My ears perk up and I ask are thrushes native to Costa Rica. The guy says that this type of thrush comes here from Canada to escape the cold weather. Hahahahaha Well son-of-a-gun! So do I!

The Coati in a strangler tree.