Costa Rica Christmas – Day 03 – 12/21/24 – Up the Mountain

Today was a transfer day.

We met Chris, Kim, and Spencer along with Jen and Asher and started with a bit of breakfast (back at the mall).

Then it was back to the room to pack before checking out and meeting the 10:00 shuttle that Kim had reserved to take us from San Jose up into the Monte Verde Cloud Forest where we’ll be spending the next couple of days at the El Establo Mountain Hotel.

Much of the trip was thru densely forested rainforest
With some agriculture in the mix – here Sugar Cane
And Coffee
Occasionally a house beat back the jungle
Every now and then come commerce – with reindeer
We followed a lumber truck much of the way
We crossed some rivers
We stopped to take photos
Us photobombing the scenery
Views of the Gulf of Colorado every so often

Along the way we stopped for lunch at a great little family restaurant in Monteverde.

Check-in was a long and friendly affair with the normal passport scanning, form filling out, orientation to the property, necessary information, Toucan spotting, tour planning, and a short course on What’sApp tips and tricks. We really enjoyed the super-helpful staff.

Arriving at our room we enjoyed the great view of the Gulf of Colorado.

We had a bit of time before our next event so I retired to the veranda to start on this post while Cheryl took a nap,

and the littles went for a swim.

The next event was a combo Happy Hour/Early supper – at the hotel’s Sports Bar.

Then we headed for the hotel’s activity center where we joined our guide for a night walk thru the forest. Leo was an accomplished naturalist who was equally good at spotting an Olingo (a cousin of a racoon) in the canopy and interesting insects resting on passing leaves. (Note, Jen spotted another Olingo later in the evening.) His descriptions of the various fauna were very informative. Though we didn’t see any monkeys, sloths, or large predatory cats it was still a great adventure.