We took the bus to San Jose, an easy 45 minute ride and had to take a short taxi ride to another bus station where we waited to board the next bus to Monteverde. Most of the people waiting for this bus were Americans, showing how big of a tourist attraction Monteverde was. I was so very fortunate to get to sit next to an older Tico vendor of some sort who smelled like he hadn't showered in a few weeks and so, I put in my headphones and decided to catch up on some much needed sleep.
As we approached the first rest stop 2 hours into the trip, I remember thinking "awesome, this bus ride isn't too bad!" When we walked inside the rest stop, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there were license plates from around the world along the ceiling. Megan and I were pleasantly surprised to see a Virginia license plate among them! Our rest stop ended pretty quickly and we boarded the bus to take on the second part of the bus ride. From this point on, the roads were super bumpy, narrow and curvy as we went up the mountain. There were several occasions where I saw my life flash before my eyes as another bus from the opposite direction approached us and our bus driver would put the bus in reverse and inch closer to the edge. I would just close my eyes, focus on my music and pray to God that we wouldn't fall off the edge of the mountain.
To cope with the many near death experiences along this bus ride, I focused on the unbelievable view of the mountains of Costa Rica. Even pictures couldn't capture the beauty of these mountains but I still tried to do what I could so that at least everyone could get a basic idea of what I was experiencing. I've seen the mountains on both the east and west coast of the states but nothing could come close to the rolling hills and greenery within the mountains here in Monteverde. It was absolutely breathtaking!
We arrived in Monteverde at 10:30 and immediately got off the bus to find WiFi to see if Tyler messaged us to say he was okay. We walked over to a cute coffee shop at the bottom of pretty steep hill to be typical Americans and use WiFi without buying anything. We checked Facebook to see that Tyler's alarm didn't go off but he was going to catch the bus at 2:30 and to wait up for him for dinner, at least. We then decided to save our zip lining trip for the next day so that he could go with us. After checking in with John and friends, we talked to the guy at the coffee shop to see if he knew where our hostel was. After going to 3 different places, we eventually made it to Monteverde Backpacker's Adventure, our home for the next day and a half. We were in a 7-person room with some girls from Canada.
Once we put our stuff in the hostel, Megan and I were desperate to find some food. We were missing American food so we found a cute restaurant to have a delicious cheeseburger and fries. Just like any other restaurant that we've been to in Costa Rica, the food took forever to get to us but it was delicious! Once we were done, we did some sightseeing around town and bought our bus ticket for the next day before returning back to the hostel to take a 2 hour nap.
One glorious cat nap and Skype session with John later, we headed back into town to look through some gift shops before heading to a coffee shop to get our coffee fill while waiting for Tyler. Around 7:30, Tyler made his grand arrival and we headed to the Treehouse Restaurant and Cafe for dinner. The entire shopping center was built around this tree and we were seated upstairs, next to the tree to enjoy dinner and drinks while 3 Ticos played an xylophone for entertainment. We headed back to the hostel to watch the movie 21 with Spanish subtitles with our Canadian roommates. We all went to bed early to be ready for our zip-lining adventure at 7:30 the next day.
Coffee, fruit, milk and cereal were provided for us when we woke up the next morning. It was good but it definitely made us miss our awesome breakfasts that our host mom Zulema makes us everyday when we are home in Atenas. Since we are in Costa Rica where everything starts much later than originally planned, the shuttle bus picked up the 6 of us at 8 when it was supposed to be there at 7:30 to take us to Monteverde Xtremo Park.
This zip lining adventure had to be the coolest thing I have ever done in my life, hands down. We did 12 separate ziplines, a Tarzan swing and Superman for $40, probably the best $40 I have spent so far in Costa Rica. I didn't trust myself to hold my phone as I zip lined so we all decided to go in for a cd at the end that would capture our zip line pictures for us. Like I already said, words and pictures couldn't do justice in describing my experience here in Monteverde. It was incredible to zip line from mountain to mountain, capturing some of the beauty that Costa Rica has to offer. The Tarzan swing was the scariest zip line of them all because you were experiencing free fall for a couple seconds before the zip line caught you and swung you back and forth. The last zip line was where you were strapped to lie flat like Superman and zip line the longest path back to the beginning of the zip line tour. I absolutely felt like I was flying. I was sad to see this adventure come to an end but as we packed up our stuff, it began to rain and so, clearly it was time to head back.
We all went to a coffee shop to grab brunch and coffee before heading back to Atenas. This bus ride lasted a total of 7 hours due to heavy rain and the resulting traffic. The 3 of us were overjoyed to get back to Atenas at 9:30. We said our goodbyes to Tyler and headed home to a lovely dinner that our host sister heated up for us. Once that was over, Megan and I went straight to sleep. Another weekend adventure was done and we are grateful to have Sunday to rest before getting back into the swing of things on Monday!
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