Parte Dos (Part 2)

As promised, here is the next segment of my past week. 

Last week, Caroline, Valerie, and I spent Monday afternoon hiking to the crater lake of Cerro Chato, Volcán Arenal's smaller, dormant next-door neighbor. The trail map promised a difficult four hour hike, and that was true. We spent about 3 1/2 hours climbing up and back down through some very rugged terrain: enormous, toe-tripping roots, a whole lot of dirt, slippery mud, and gigantic rocks. Not to mention that when we arrived at the top, we had layers upon layers of sweat, sunscreen, and dirt. But it was definitely worth it! The view from above the crater lake was absolutely stunning, and when we made the 300 meter descent down to the lake, we could not believe how breathtaking the sight was. It was certainly one of the highlights of the week with my sisters. After hiking that small volcano, I now have the itch to do some more rock climbing back in the States or more hiking!

A mile uphill!

From the top of the volcano.

At the lakeshore.

Nice and sweaty. 

Tuesday was a day of travel: Arenal to Monteverde, from one tourist destination to another! At the suggestion of Rita and Steve, we opted for the "taxi-boat-taxi" option to travel from Point A to Point B. Although it was deemed the "quickest" route, it still took us 6 hours. First we were picked up at the lodge and transported by minibus (similar to our full-size vans) to the boat in Lake Arenal. There was no dock at the edge of Lake Arenal, simply a shoreline with many boats to take passengers from one end to the other. The boat ride took about an hour, and the view was beautiful. Luckily it was early in the morning and not raining yet! The most unfortunate part of the taxi-boat-taxi option was the hour and a half wait we had at the edge of the lake once we arrived on the other side. We were waiting for another minibus to pick us up and transport the sixteen boat passengers to Monteverde, but the buses took forever to come. Luckily we were able to get out of the boat and walk around a little bit. I was getting seriously hungry though! Combined with hot and tired, we were all a bit cranky.

View of Arenal and Cerro Chato from the boat.

Climbing rocks while we waited for the minibuses.

Stilling waiting: Planning out the next few days. 

Finally the minibuses arrived, and we continued on our expedition to Monteverde. This part of the trip was perhaps the most exciting, as it was two hours on gravel (and that's putting it nicely!) roads at a maximum speed of about 25 kilometers per hour (about 15-16 miles per hour for you non-metrics out there)! Sitting in the back of the minibus without air-conditioning was both bumpy and sultry. My shirt looked like I had just gone for a run, when in fact I had been sitting for two hours! Halfway through the drive, we stopped at a local restaurant, and Valerie, Caroline, and I treated ourselves to Dos Pinos ice cream bars. So yummy! The taste of happy cows' dairy products is so nice. Nothing like the factory farm dairies in the United States.

We finally arrived in Monteverde at our charming eco-lodge, Arco Iris Lodge. The name "arco iris" means "rainbow". Coincidentally, Caroline's friend from University of Michigan, Beth, was staying at Arco Iris as well, as she and her church group had spent a week in the southern portion of Costa Rica working on a Habitat for Humanity project. It was a great way for the two of them to spend some time together! We also took advantage of Beth and her parents' knowledge of the area to determine our itinerary for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Monteverde.

Breakfast at Arco Iris, including eggs laid onsite,
fried sweet plantains, fresh mango and pineapple,
and of course, gallo pinto and bananas!

Que lindo! (How cute!)

With the guidance of Beth's family, we opted out of the night tour Tuesday evening, as it was likely going to rain and the animals they had been promised to encounter the previous night were not seen. Instead, we had a leisurely seafood dinner and an early night. Wednesday morning was spent at Curi-Cancha, a relatively new wildlife reserve in Monteverde that only allows sixty visitors a day to preserve the wildlife. While there, we were guided by Grevien through many layers of the forest. Like in Arenal, our guide pointed out various plants, animals, and birds. The previous day Beth and her family had seen the coveted quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, so Caroline decided she needed to see one too! I personally wanted to encounter a sloth. Our first sighting of the day was a group of several spider monkeys (more than a half dozen!) who entertained us for over thirty minutes in the trees above us. Apparently the spider monkeys are rather elusive in that particular reserve, so it was a rare treat to have such a show!

Entrance to Curi-Cancha

Looking up a Ficus tree--
new trees plant their roots on an older tree,
depriving it of nutrients, and eventually it dies,
leaving a hole in the middle!

Look at that acrobatic monkey!

Adorable family!

For the next few hours, we spotted various birds, agoutis (similar to the coatis), and learned about the various plants throughout the cloud forest. Grevien and his fellow guides continued to search for the quetzals, because they knew some had nests close to our path. Finally, they saw not one, but two! The quetzal is probably the most beautiful bird I have ever seen! Like the spider monkey exhibition, we were blessed to see the bird because despite its symbolism throughout Latin America, most natives have yet to spot the bird.

The prized quetzal!

After reading about our wonderful sightings in the Curi-Cancha Reserve, you are probably left wondering: What exactly makes a cloud forest a cloud forest? Read this to find out!

Only a few hundred meters from the Curi-Cancha Reserve, the Monteverde Cheese Factory was located, and as you will soon learn, it was a necessity to go, as the Cheese Factory is such an integral part of Monteverde's history. In 1948, a group of Quakers from Fairhope, Alabama (not too far from Gulf Shores), left the United States rather than be jailed for their failure to join the draft for the Vietnam War and farmed dairy cattle in what is now Monteverde. In 1953, the families began producing cheese, and other non-Quaker farms joined as well. The first cheese produced by the Quakers was a variety of gouda, but now there are 17 different varieties! They also produce a wide selection of ice creams, which we thoroughly enjoyed! The Monteverde Cheese Factory is in a tight competition with the Michigan State University Dairy Store!

#alltheflavors
coffee, coconut, rum with raisins,
sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate chip

Wednesday afternoon was spent at El Trapiche, a coffee, sugar, and, more recently, a cocoa plantation in Monteverde. Although the operation isn't as big as the Don Juan version, the area's #1 tour, we had heard rave reviews from Beth and her group about El Trapiche. I happen to agree with their group: the tour given to us by Diego, one of the young adult sons of the owners, was fabulous. He had a genuine sense of humor and kept the audience engaged for over two hours as he led us through the process of making coffee, sugar, and chocolate.

Our engaging tour guide, Diego

Grinding the coffee beans!

Diego explaining some of the equipment.

Diego's father working "el trapiche",
the machine that presses the juice out of the sugar cane.

As an avid coffee drinker, I was very excited to visit El Trapiche, and I learned so much about the coffee process. If you're interested, I invite you to read more about the process! We had the opportunity to try cocoa seeds after they were dried and after roasting. Both were very bitter, but had the cocoa flavor. The best part was when Diego mixed in powdered sugar! Making sugar was a fun process to learn about too. We tasted raw sugar cane--yum!--and also hot, boiled sugar cane. We made our own coffee flavored candy as well. At one point while walking throughout the plantation, Diego stopped and told us that he often saw sloths in the nearby trees. We looked up, and there, right before our eyes, was a sleeping sloth! We could not see his face (or maybe it was a her!) but he was adorable. See sloth: check! Monkeys, quetzals, and sloths in the same day: wow! At the end of the tour, Diego's mother prepared us picadillo de arracache, a traditional wedding food, and coffee. Yum!

Diego's mother preparing us fresh coffee!

Diego offering us picadillo de arracache. 

Dad picked the restaurant for dinner, El Trio, which advertised its menu as "eclectic Latin American cuisine". We shared an avocado, heart of palm, and tomato tower as an appetizer and then I had a goat cheese and arugula stuffed chicken breast, accompanied by sweetly sauced vegetables. We topped off the evening by sharing a mango split (mango sorbet, vanilla ice cream, and chopped fresh mango in a crispy shell) and arroz con leche. One of the best dinners I have had while here! Perhaps the highlight of the dinner, though, was when everyone in the restaurant quickly ran to the deck railing to watch a three-limbed (yes, only three!) sloth swinging himself across telephone wires. Grevien had told us we could see sloths there, and it surprised me how fast he moved!

Avocado, tomato, and heart of palm tower

My dinner tasted way better than it looks!

Mango Split

Arroz con Leche

Our morning activity on Thursday was a "canopy tour". Canopy tours, or ziplines, are very popular in the rainforests in Costa Rica, and have become one of the major attractions in the last two decades. Caroline, Valerie, and I elected to complete the Selvatura course, which consisted of 18 platforms and 13 cables plus a "Tarzan swing" (free fall!). We all enjoyed it very much, and the views were splendid! The longest cable was a full kilometer! It was a great adventure; I will probably do it again before I leave because most of my friends have not done it yet. As I mentioned earlier, the rock climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities have really made me want to do more adventurous things upon my return, so if anyone wants to join me, let me know!

For some reason, my helmet was crooked.

Ready for take-off!

You can't see it, but I'm grinning from ear to ear!

The last activity before we departed Monteverde was a quick trip to the Orchid Garden, which housed dozens upon dozens of different types of orchids. The highlight of that excursion was seeing the world's smallest orchid! I suppose some of the others were beauties as well! You can decide for yourself.

Gigantic metal orchid! 

Love the colors!

Spindly orchids!

World's smallest orchid!