It was another early morning with alarms going off at 6:15. We finished packing and went down to breakfast at 6:45. We went back to the room to brush our teeth. Our luggage was ready to be picked up at 7:30, so we went down to the lobby to check out. Everyone (31 of us + 3 leaders) was gathered.Three mini buses came and as everyone IDd their luggage it was loaded onto the 3 buses through a rear window. There were 13 on our bus, and we took off at 8:10. From the back, another Bill P, gave a loud moo from the back of the bus which we all found quite amusing.
There was lots of traffic and road construction getting out of San Jose, but once we got off the freeway onto a lovely 2 lane road, it really thinned out. Our main guide (Bernal Diaz) talked the whole way. He said to expect higher coffee prices soon because the coffee industry is losing 60% of their crop to a fungus (Reya). He claims the Nicaraguans are bringing it across the border on their baskets. He says they have the same illegal immigration problems as we do with Mexico.
We drove until we reached the coast and headed north. The sea was quite pretty. We were to look for howler monkeys, but all we saw were black termite mounds in the trees. They only have arboreal termites here. We saw: pretty yellow pui trees, a cara cara (falcon family), the guanacasta tree, casia grande tree which has pretty pink flowers with long seed pods, spiny cedar trees used as wind breaks/fencing.
We stopped for a break at a fairly large, open air but covered restaurant. There, Adriana Diaz, Bernal’s daughter, showed us a cashew tree. The season is about done, but there was some fruit on the ground. The stem is the edible fruit part, and the cashew nut is on the end and needs to be roasted before it is edible. We also saw cows with long floppy ears. Then we started climbing up the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. We saw cowboys on horseback. We finally hit the gravel, curvy road which was to last the whole last hour of our trip.
We arrived at Hotel Fonda Vela in the cloud forest at noon. We were let out at the restaurant building to have lunch. It was WINDY, WINDY, WINDY!!! And there is a perpetual mist all around which sometimes evolves into rain. Lunch was a buffet that wasn’t bad: cold fish pasta salad, green salad, a great finely cubed veggie salad with lots of squash, chicken, fish, beef, French fries, onion rings. I got the fish which was fried and quite good.
After lunch we were given our room assignments. We got room 2. This hotel is built on a hillside in the midst of the cloud forest. It is a scattering of wood/stone buildings that are rather rustic. Check in/front desk is in a small building. Rooms 1-12 are grouped together in several 2 story buildings looking over a small clearing down the hill. The rest of the rooms are on the other side of the lobby building. The restaurant is a bit of a walk for us, but it is a fairly pretty one even if the road is gravel and rather muddy. The pool is further down the hill from the restaurant.
At 2 we loaded back on the vans to drive into Monteverde Reserve. We divided into 3 groups. We went on the less strenuous hike (2 miles) with Max, our birder guide. The others took a longer hike up the mountain to the Continental Divide. Still others took a short hike. There were 12 of us in our group.
Max talked about the rain forest verses cloud forest and many other biological topics. No pollen, so plants require specific pollinators. We saw lots of strangler figs, even one in which the host tree had died and all that remained were the figs surrounding empty space.
At the end of the hike we went to the hummingbird building with outdoor feeders. I cannot tell you the number of various hummingbirds we saw that were gorgeous. A kinkajou kept climbing down the chain holding the feeders and stealing juice.
We got back to the hotel at 5. Bill and I sat outside under the protection of a bush at a concrete bench and table. We looked at birds and I got some gorgeous sunset photos. At 6:30 we walked to the restaurant for happy half hour. We talked to a Dutch couple from Boston and their family.
At 7 we went to the dining room and sat with Judi and Steven. We finally had a menu dinner. For an app I got the chicken tortilla soup which was quite good. Bill had a salad. I then had sea bass with a creamy shrimp sauce, mixed veggies, and mashed potatoes formed into a rosette. Bill got fried fish with French fries. We got dessert - a chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream for me and a flan for Bill.
The mist is almost like a rain and constant. We showered. Bill fell asleep while I wrote my journal until I couldn’t stay awake.
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