Costa Rica - a popular vacation destination for many around the world - is a rugged country with coastlines that span the length of its geography. Known for great beaches, hiking, surfing, climbing, exploring, ziplining, and just relaxing, it is a vacation getaway supreme and a favorite wintering spot of many.
We found ourselves in Monteverde: traversing rugged roads, riding horseback through scenic farmlands, sampling chocolate from the pod, and dining on great cuisine.
(Read below: Part One of a series of three posts about Monteverde.)
Before I reached my twentieth year of life, our family was privy to meet two fun-loving Costa Rican brothers while on a trip to Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. These guys had a contagious laugh and never-ending comedic presence. They were happy, hilarious, kind, and generous (¡pura vida!), not to mention...muy inteligente.
Their father - a cardiac surgeon at the time - had the most advanced stereo equipment we'd ever heard. (He used the equipment to listen to heart sounds of his patients.) One of my best memories to this day is dancing all night long with the brothers, and my younger sister, to Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" album and the Latin rhythms of Ruben Blades, played loudly on that sound system. All the while, we were drinking Costa Rican rum and Coke, laughing, talking, singing, and salsa-ing our butts off until dawn. (It was the first time I'd ever danced "Latin" and the first night I didn't get any sleep!)
Several years later, younger brother Alejandro became a teacher...and eventually married one. When I was studying for the same career, it was he who encouraged me to work toward a degree in bilingual education (because of our Spanish language skills). His wife mentored me for one semester while I did my student teaching. Fluent in Spanish, the pair taught overseas and traveled extensively. We stayed in contact, and they are role models for me, living the lives of their dreams while teaching abroad.
Older brother David led a more mysterious life, and we lost touch over the years. However, news of the business enterprise he would be engaging in with his brother and sister-in-law came to light. Together, the three pitched in on a hotel - the Paris Confort (French word for "comfort") B&B, located in the mountains of Costa Rica, their native home. Dave had reappeared.
My younger sister had CR on her bucket list as well. When her vacation days allowed, we made plans to reconnect with Dave, who lives on-site in Monteverde - a place not advertised as much as many other Costa Rican destinations - at the bed and breakfast. We booked our flights for early December, the beginning of the "dry" season.
Arriving at the Liberia, Guanacaste airport (LIR), the air was muggy and warm. We changed into lighter clothing - having slept through our long airport layover in hooded jackets and long pants. There were lots of travelers, but the customs lines went quickly, and we were soon in a shuttle on the way to our rental car. It would be an additional 2.5-hour journey before we reached our room for the night.
Being more of a mountain girl, I was pleased to see the mountains of Monteverde in the distance as we set out on our drive across Costa Rica. Going to the beach wasn't our goal on this trip: we were going to immerse ourselves in nature, look for sloths, and hike in the cloud forest.
It is always amazing to me when first visiting a new country and doing "normal" things - i.e. driving their streets and highways, stopping at a gas station for something to drink, listening to their popular music on the radio, etc. - all while going mostly unnoticed by the locals. Somehow we suddenly adapt, though everything is completely foreign.
My sister and I took turns driving. Due to construction, we got diverted from the highway that would get us closer to Monteverde in less time. Then the GPS took us through several small villages, up winding, unpaved roads, across narrow bridges, along hairpin curves, and around a few farm trucks and one bull. We were in the country!
Because it rains so much in Costa Rica - especially in the mountains where we were headed - our vehicle bounced in and out of rocky ruts and washed-out portions of shoulders and unpaved roadways. My sister was driving at this point, and her patience was endless.
It was a bumpy ride! But well worth it.
At last we arrived at what would be our mountain home for the next week. The formerly-elusive Dave greeted us with smiles and hugs just as the sun was starting to set. He led us up the hill to the main house above the hotel to watch the orange orb drop into the Gulf of Nicoya on Costa Rica's western coast.
It was time for a cerveza!
We needed one after that drive. Fortunately, right next door to the B&B is a local brewery and restaurant, Monteverde Brewing Co. We headed over and caught up on our lives, enjoying the appetizers, ambience, thirst-quenching beer, and conversation.
After a good night's sleep - in a real bed and not an airport chair - we woke up to the beauty of the rain forest greenery outside our panoramic windows.
What a sight! The sounds of the "jungle" - birds and insects of every color and size - came in through our windows. Our first night in this tropical haven was very restful, and waking up to this feast for the eyes - being in such a comfortable and picturesque location - was the icing on the cake.
Dave led us on a walk into town, where we stopped at a bakery for rich, local coffee and some breakfast items. Right next door to the cafe and bakery is a fruit market, so we bought some things to keep in our room. On to the grocery store down the road, where we found bottles of wine and other staples.
You know how your first day of vacation can be exhausting... and exhilarating?
Sleeping eight hours in the airport, eating crap food, drinking too much coffee, taking the shuttle to the rental car agency, getting stuck behind a broken-down semi, driving on unpaved roads around farm trucks and loose livestock, drumming up the energy to walk uphill to see an amazing sunset and then proceed to sample some delicious Costa Rican beer? Yep, that's when the vacation begins... when you've finally arrived.
And bananas? A tree grew right outside our door.
This adventure had only just begun.
(Read more about Monteverde, Costa Rica in Parts Two and Three, to come.)
To check out the very comfortable Paris Confort B&B (Dave is a superhost!), visit one of these links:
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