My favorite weekend so far....

Welcome to Monte Verde! On Friday after culture day we got on the bus for a short 5 hour ride to Monte Verde. When we arrived we asked a man for directions to our hostel where we were staying and he offered us a ride. We quickly stated we would walk, and he gave us directions. We started walking, and stopped and asked for more directions.... walked some more, asked for more directions.... and so on for probably almost an hour. The town is pretty small, so we made many friends along the way, and finally made our way down the end of a street, down a long, curvy hill in the dark that made us feel like we were walking to our death. The road was very muddy and our feet were covered in the clay-like sludge when Mi Casa Tica finally came into view. We walked in the door and who should we meet? The man that offered us a ride also happened to be the owner....if we had taken the time to talk to him, we would have discovered that, but we obviously prefer walking around a strange town in the dark to getting a ride from the hostel owner.

 David was the man working at the hostel and he speaks four languages, and has traveled and worked in many countries. We asked him for Spanish so we could practice and he gladly obliged, but chipped in with English when necessary. He was a great resource to have in the area, and made us feel very welcome to Monte Verde.

The hostel only cost $6 a night, so what were we expecting? I am not sure, but $6 a night adventure was delivered! We were shown to our room with 3 mattresses on the ground and one on a bed frame, and open glass slate windows that did not close. The ceiling wasn't high enough to stand, so we just crouched. One step was missing a part of the wood so I made a grand entrance and slid the first time down, but we were thrilled to be there!

We received a key to the whole hostel, as David left at 10 pm and we were able to come and go as we pleased. There were no other guests there the first night, so four girls had the key and the entire hostel to ourselves. Two of us went out earlier for supper and had the key and then at 12:30 am the other two came and knocked on the front door for us to let them in. We groggily made our ways down the treacherous stairs and tried to open our eyes wide enough to get the key in the lock. We could not get the key to turn and the harder we tried the more we woke up.... Finally we handed the key to them through a window to try from the outside. It worked, but then we found ourselves on the inside with no way to lock the door. So Emily V. hung herself out the window to lock the door from the outside so the hostel would be locked. It worked and eventually we all went to bed, bugs and all. At 5 am. we were awakened by a cat meowing loudly outside our door, eventually it gave up after trying to climb through the hole next to the door, but not quite fitting through. At 6 am we were awakened to the sound of the chop... chop... chop... chop... of fruit being chopped for breakfast, and eventually we all gave up and get ready to adventure our way through the day!

 Three of us headed to the woods to find this tree that you can climb up inside. It is actually a parasite that grows on the outside of an already existing tree and eventually kills the original tree. The original tree decomposes and all that is left is the parasite tree that you can climb up into. It is actually very fascinating, and without to much trouble we found it and had a surreal moment of climbing inside a tree. Emily G. and I  were thrilled to be inside the tree. It was raining,  not surprising since we were in the rain forest, but the tree was pretty wet. We didn't climb to high for fear of slipping, but it was fun.

From inside the tree

This tree is still decomposing the original tree and you can see it in the middle.

These are pictures that we took while walking around town, sometimes clouds blocked our view more than others, but it was breathtaking. I cannot imagine living in a place where this is my daily view. I am very tempted by the though.

In the afternoon we went on a guided tour of the rain forest and cloud forest. Our guide Herbert was a funny, but very knowledgeable guy. The tour went over 10 hanging bridges that swing pretty good while we were walking over them. We did not get to see a lot of animals, but we did see interesting plants and learn more about the forests and wildlife. We were in a group with people from France, Germany, Sweden, UK, and possibly somewhere else that I have forgotten.

A clear-winged butterfly

One of my companions walking across a bridge

A plant has toxic juice that people use to have in their home that was not good when children played with it or would bite it.

Surprise, surprise, as part of the tour we got to climb through another tree to the bridge on top! Emily G. was more than happy to lead the way.

I followed with Lauren bringing up the rear.

This one had ropes and handles to help make it to the top.

We then used a pulley to get our belongings to top.

Some more photos from around town.

In the evening we went on a night tour and walked around the rain forest with flashlights looking for animals. This was actually almost my favorite part of the day. I finally saw some animals! I did not take a lot of pictures because I was too busy helping the guide who kept calling me out, or I was too busy watching the animals. We saw a couple toucans, this red-eyed frog, a baby tarantula that the guide was sure to tell me could bite my toes since I only had sandals on. We also saw a possum, a porcupine, and two sloths. I think it is pretty good that we saw a sloth, because my host dad told me that he has never seen a sloth in the forest. The one sloth was awake, so he gave us a show by climbing around for us. The tour lasted two hours and I was sad to be done, but also very hungry for some supper. We finished the night by going to eat something in a restaurant with a tree growing up through the middle, we had live music, and a meal complete with some Costa Rican deep fried cheese curds, which are not like Wisconsin cheese curds, but surprisingly good!

We spent some time visiting and talking to the other guests staying in the hostel before going off to bed. When I went to bed and got my sheet tucked all around me to try and ward off bugs, the cat tried to come through the window slots.... Even though I was comfy enough and tired enough I didn't get to much sleep, but it was just one of those $6 nights.

Here is one of our sloth friends

When we were leaving town bright and early on Sunday morning this herd of cows got herded down the mountain rode next to the bus.