Our Pre-Christmas Trip to Monteverde (by Charlie, Age 9)

After parent-teacher conference day (the last day of school), we took our luggage and drove to Monteverde. We went before, but that trip was a bummer because Li-Li fell off a horse and we didn't get to do everything after that! Whoops-a-daisy!

So we went back this time so we could hike and see more.

The drive is different from normal mountain roads. It’s very windy and bumpy and right on the edge of a mountain and Li-Li cried because she thought we were going to drive off a cliff. We didn’t. So don’t worry about that.

There was one part that was really painful part of the drive --- driving near the city of Puntarenas (on the water) before you start climbing the mountain. Why was it painful? Because the air conditioning stinks in our car and everyone was complaining that it was TOTES hot. Totes hot!

But we got there ok. It was good that we did!

We stayed in a hotel called El Establo. It's more like a neighborhood than a hotel. There were lots of little houses and buildings going all the way up a STEEP mountain road. And I mean steeeeeep! It was the steepest road we ever saw (and we LIVE on a mountain!) and our room was near the top of it. They did have a small pool but it was coooooooooold, especially with the mountain air. Brrrrrr!

The view from our room was totes may-may (that means “totally amazing”)...

The cool view (that's the ocean and the NIcoya Peninsula far off)

...except for when someone above us dropped big undies that were drying on their porch. That view wasn’t great.

But the rest was! We could even see all the way to the Pacific and we could see the whole Nicoya Peninsula, which is really cool.

Some things we did.

We ate dinner at a restaurant with a tree growing in the middle of it!

The whole family went on a long hike in the big Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve. We saw the bridge that mom and dad saw when they came on their honeymoon. There is still a sign saying that the bridge opened the SAME day mom and dad got married! On the hike, Liadan kept running ahead of us on the trail because she wanted to be “Leader of the Pack.” She also got tons of mud in her shoe when we were playing in the QUICK-MUD! There were some great views on the hike.

Why am I the one walking near the sign that says "DANGER?!?"

Me and Dad on the Monteverde Reserve hike

One night, mom took the girls to dinner and the boys went on a cool night hike. We saw BIG tarantulas, an olingo, a giant “walking stick” bug, crickets and other bugs. The guide said you have to get lucky to see more than just crickets. We were lucky! The best part of the night hike was at the end when the guide showed us a “Mountain Avocado” tree where sacred quetzals come every morning to eat.

Walking stick! We did not use THESE walking sticks on our hike!

So the next day, we got up early and went to look for the quetzals. And guess what?!?!?! We saw one!! It was a female. The pictures didn’t come out great because it was really far away but it was above us and the family can now say we have seen a quetzal (which barely anybody ever gets to see because you can only find them in the wild because they can’t live in captivity…they all die if you capture them).

Dad took a picture of us taking a picture of the quetzal!

This is a female like the one we saw but you can actually SEE the bird in THIS picture (unlike ours).

We didn't see a male but I put this picture in because it's cool.

This is what the quetzals come to the tree to eat!

That morning, the boys went with dad and we hiked in the other big reserve (the Santa Elena reserve) where dad volunteered when he lived here after college. He wanted a reunion with crazy Carlos, the trail maintenance guy he worked with, but Carlos isn’t there anymore. Dad told us stories about how Carlos ate his neighbors chickens and used to smell the wild boars when they were on the trails so we wanted to meet the guy, too. Oh, well. The hike was very fun! We talked about lots of stuff and pretended to be old people with walking sticks. We even talked in Spanish together at the end (un poquito!).

We found a picture of what the guide cabin used to look like when Dad volunteered here a long time ago!

The Santa Elena Reserve is more woodsy and has lots of cool trees.

Jack and I tried swinging on vines. It didn't work.

While the boys went on the second hike, the girls went with mom to get their nails done.

The last morning we went to a “bat sanctuary” which was REALLY cool. We saw tons of bats. Learned all about bats. Got to play with bat ears. Bats-y, bats-y, bats-y! (that’s like “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” in the Brady Bunch).

Jack seeing what it would be like to have super-bat-hearing!

The biggest bat in Monteverde is as big as this thing!

And THEN, the drive again. Back down the mountain. Back by the hot, hot Puntarenas. And back to the house! It was a fun trip before Christmas!