Costa Rica – Day 4 - Monteverde

We ate a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto, tortillas, eggs, fruit including ripe mango, and juice.  It was my favorite breakfast of the trip tied with the rios tropicals rafting breakfast.

Jeep-Boat-Jeep

I was really excited for our transfer to our next location, Monteverde because we were taking a jeep-boat-jeep shortcut across Lago Arenal to cut down on the long driving time.  Sadly, there were no jeeps driving down rustic paths, but just the typical turismo vans driving down twisty, unpaved, bumpy roads that made Esther look like a bobblehead in the row in front of us.

La Mariposa

We finally arrived in Monteverde to our wonderful hotel – La Mariposa B & B.  The man at the desk, Esteban, was so kind and helpful and spoke very clear spanish that I could keep up with. 

Monteverde Cheese Factory

We got to learn all about how cheese is made at this factory!  The best part was the end when we got to taste the different types of cheese made at the factory!  There was a Gouda, Swiss, smoked provolone, Emmental, and dulce de leche mmmm.  Beforehand, we all had also gotten different flavors of ice cream at the factory store.  I got Guanabana and Orange-Pineapple.  Delicious.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel where the four of us proceeded to share stories and bond.  aww, it was a lot of fun.

Night Walk

The Monteverde Cloud Forest offers a night walk tour where you get to see different animals than you would during the day.  There was a giant cricket that as Esther put it, looked like a grasshopper crossed with a shrimp.  We also saw a few drogs, other insects, and larvae.  The coolest part was when Leanne and I got to squeeze inside of a gigantic tree that was hollow inside and peered up into the top of the inside of the tree with our flashlights.  At the end we also saw a chinkachu (sp?) in a tree, or rather its beady red eyes staring back at us.

It was a lot colder in Monteverde than I was expecting to get on the trip so Amy and I huddled for warmth.