Picture: Diary entry after scary cliff drive up to Santa Elena
After a great last breakfast at our little B&B where I again practiced my Espanol, we packed up up Raul and set off on our long drive to Monte Verde via Santa Elena. What a great drive it was. The first part took us back down the mountain to San Jose. A cyclist blew past us negotiating the treacherous switchbacks much faster than we were able (especially since I had my eyes closed most of the time…) In fact, I was more than a little worried that I was going to have to administer 1st aid when he would surely hit another vehicle head on while overtaking yet another bus or minivan. Didn’t happen though. Phew!
The next leg was along Highway 1 which is actually Costa Rica’s part of the Pan American Highway which runs from Mexico to the southern tip of Argentina. Our part of the highway was new and very easy to drive. Note: bring money for tolls. Hwy 1 eventually turned and wound past through the very busy and dirty Puntarenus coastline. The traffic built up here as Hwy 1 is mostly a one-lane road. Then we turned off the road and headed up towards Monte Verde up in the cloud forest.
This is where the real drive began in earnest. The serpentine road made its way through lush and colorful foliage. It was not unusual to see a solitary dog standing unconcernedly in the middle of the road or standing outside a tin shack. Eventually even this small road in a typical tropical paradise gave way to a small dirt road that began to slant very steeply upwards. The final 18km (just over 11 miles) was a scary rutted/unpaved climb with steep drop offs towering hundreds of feet above coffee plantations. Tour coaches roared down at us forcing us out towards the edge in places. Definitely not the 405 freeway back in California. The layer of mist hung mysteriously over the mountain slopes hiding small figures working in the plantations. Eventually the plantations gave way to rainforest and we made it through the small, rustic, working town of Santa Elena.
Soon after we arrived in Monte Verde and were greeted by a huge picture of a colorful green frog advertising a guided night hike. The small town was perched on steep slopes and had the feel of Cairns in Australia due mainly to the rustic appearance and crowds of young travelers “doing” the ziplines. Our small B&B was perched by a school surrounded by high wire fences and with the appearance of a correctional facility. The late afternoon thunderstorms were gathering darkly filling the air with suspense as we pulled back the covers on the beds for the bedbug check ritual (all clear:) I soon found a place to buy some supplies including food and a small bottle of tequila and clear alcohol made from cane sugar. Robyn and I sat on the main building’s upstairs veranda to watch the tempest while writing in our journals and reading. The kids opted to watch the Los Simpsons in Spanish in our little room. All were thankful for the rest even as the thunder blasted the mountain.
Note: you can also take canopy tours in Santa Elena, but we wanted to wait for Monte Verde which was more kid-friendly and had a great national park also.