Too soon the Costa Rica adventure approached its end and it was time to wrap things up with a final few activities.
The route involved the usual complexities, driving down the mountain from Monteverde and heading towards the airport outside of San José. We also took a little divergence along the way for something rather remarkable.
Cloud Forest Reserve
But first we still had some unfinished business in Monteverde. One can’t say they’ve truly been to the cloud forest until they’ve visited at least one of the formally designated reserves. So we entered the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve outside of Santa Elena (map). Actually this was our second attempt. We tried the same thing the previous afternoon but the park closed early because of lightning. Things rarely close in Costa Rica even with heavy rain although lightning is an exception. It’s a pretty rough road up to the entrance so I wasn’t thrilled to have to do it again a second time although the park itself made up for the inconvenience.
Natural conditions are pristine and visitors cannot leave the trails to minimize any impact on the ecosystem. We looped around several trails — sometimes in the clouds and sometimes in the open — observing local plants and animals. One trail led to a modest waterfall while another brought us to an overlook at the Continental Divide. This geographic designation may not hold much distinction for one of the smallest countries bordering two oceans although I still enjoy those kinds of things wherever they occur.
Night Walk
Many animals in the cloud forest are nocturnal so they don’t come out until the sun sets. If visitors want to see them they need to take a night walk with an experienced guide. Many companies offer this service and we selected Woodpecker Educational Tours primarily because it was close to where we rented our temporary home (map).
It was a great couple of hours with flashlights and a viewing scope. I was a bit skeptical that an iPhone placed atop a scope would produce any decent photos. Yet it actually worked surprisingly well as my photo of a side-striped palm pit viper attests. Other creatures along our evening photo safari included two Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupines, a Central American Banded Gecko, a Keel-billed Toucan, a Rufous-eyed Brook Frog, a tarantula, several sleeping birds and numerous obscure insects.
Coffee and Sugar
Well, we’d taken a tour of a cocoa farm a few days earlier in La Fortuna. So why not coffee and sugar in Monteverde? Again, there are many easy options in this area. We selected a nearby place called El Trapiche that our Airbnb host recommended (map). Coffee this fresh and sugar pressed by hand from long sugarcane stalks tastes great. This is all incredibly local, completely artisanal stuff; very little of it makes it beyond Monteverde.
It rained some of the time although we ignored it. I guess we were starting to acclimate to local conditions by then. Sure, some of the tour involved outdoor walking although every stop included a shelter, and we dressed appropriately anyway. Wet weather is actually “good” here and provides conditions for such a place to exist.
Crocodile Bridge
However, we had to leave the mountains eventually and head back towards San José. We had a final stop, one we didn’t plan prior to our trip; a place called Crocodile Bridge. I’m not exactly sure how we found out about it but it looked interesting and we added it to the itinerary along the way. It involved a spot on Costa Rica’s Route 34, the Costanera Sur Highway, where it crosses the Río Tárcoles (map) and it required only a small detour from our route. People come here because crocodiles congregate in huge numbers on the mudflats below. Sure it’s one of the more polluted watersheds in Costa Rica because it drains the San José basin, but the crocodiles don’t seem to mind.
It’s not a zoo, it’s not a man-made roadside attraction, it’s truly something natural. However it’s also a bonafide tourist attraction. Entrepreneurs quickly realized the economic potential of the crocodiles so several knickknack shops and soda restaurants sit along the northern approach to the bridge. That makes it a great spot to grab lunch, browse for tourists trinkets, and walk onto the bridge for some crocodile action down below. Most of that action involved them sunbathing and barely moving. Sometimes they swim.
Tourists crowd the area so men “help” visitors find parking and then watch over their cars. I’m not sure whether this is a formal, organized business endeavor but a 500 Colones tip (a little less than a dollar) seemed to keep the car safe. I read somewhere that petty thefts used to be a problem here and the current system largely eliminated the problem. So a small tip felt like a reasonable solution.
Dirigo Fermentory
Time for one more brewery? Sure, why not. We found the closest brewery to our airport hotel, a place called Dirigo Fermentory in Alajuela (map). It sat next to the Hotel Aeropuerto, which was not our hotel but I might have considered it had I done more research ahead of time. That would have been mighty convenient. Three of the eight breweries we visited in Costa Rica seemed colocated with hotels. I wonder if that’s a thing here? If so, it’s a trend I heartily endorse. We need more brewery hotels!
Airport
I’m not sure why this creepy animatronic sloth at Juan Santamaría Airport fascinated me so much. I guess maybe because it resembled a brownish Gritty. Anyway it signaled our departure from Pura Vida.
Addendum: we were able to complete our Global Entry interviews when we cleared customs and immigration in Miami! Woo-hoo! Otherwise I was facing a year-long (or longer) wait because of the interview backlog in my geographic area.
Articles in the Costa Rica Series
- Intentions and Observations
- In the Shadow of the Volcano
- Exploring La Fortuna
- Brew Day
- Relaxing in Tamarindo
- Beyond the Beach
- On To Monteverde
- Completing the Circuit
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr
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