Jeep-boat-jeep is how people describe the journey from Arenal to Monteverde. That's exactly what it is. Door to door transport, we are being picked up at 2pm, but for jeep read minibus. Bang on time the bus arrives as we are the first of two pick-ups on the journey this afternoon.
We drove round to the Arenal Observation Lodge, which is an upmarket resort, to pick up another six punters. We then have another forty minutes drive to the landing quay on the lake. Lago Arenal is a man made reservoir with a dam at the eastern end. and was created to generate hydroelectricity. It was expanded in 1979 to generate 70% of the country's electricity needs and was crucial in Costa Rica's green energy programme. Huge increases in solar and wind generation means it now has to produces only 17% of the electricity.
Here you can see Helen enjoying the view on Costa Rica's largest lake.
We now had the final jeep leg to complete, at this time we did not realise that this was to be the most arduous and longest stage. The angle of ascent was rarely less than 20° and sometimes up to 45°. We seemed to climb and climb on roads that were not metalled but consisted of loose stones and potholes. At the top end of the first pass there was an array of wind turbines for power generation. How these were installed, I have no idea. They could not have come overland, so I suspect they must have been helicoptered in. The road continued in the same vein for an hour and I guess we have covered ten kilometres when we pull up at a little cafe.
This was the outlook from the cafe and gives a good idea why it was such slow going. The coffee, cake and toilet were equally welcome though not in that order.
The sun set some time before we reached Monteverdi.
We drove round to the Arenal Observation Lodge, which is an upmarket resort, to pick up another six punters. We then have another forty minutes drive to the landing quay on the lake. Lago Arenal is a man made reservoir with a dam at the eastern end. and was created to generate hydroelectricity. It was expanded in 1979 to generate 70% of the country's electricity needs and was crucial in Costa Rica's green energy programme. Huge increases in solar and wind generation means it now has to produces only 17% of the electricity.
Here you can see Helen enjoying the view on Costa Rica's largest lake.
We now had the final jeep leg to complete, at this time we did not realise that this was to be the most arduous and longest stage. The angle of ascent was rarely less than 20° and sometimes up to 45°. We seemed to climb and climb on roads that were not metalled but consisted of loose stones and potholes. At the top end of the first pass there was an array of wind turbines for power generation. How these were installed, I have no idea. They could not have come overland, so I suspect they must have been helicoptered in. The road continued in the same vein for an hour and I guess we have covered ten kilometres when we pull up at a little cafe.
This was the outlook from the cafe and gives a good idea why it was such slow going. The coffee, cake and toilet were equally welcome though not in that order.
The sun set some time before we reached Monteverdi.
Here's the hotel that we are staying in. I must say that we were pretty impressed with the accommodation, have a look.
Helen having a wee peek at ablution facilities.
Although people have lived in the Monteverde area for thousands of years, it was the arrival of the Quakers from Florida in the 1950s that really got the town started. They were escaping the US draft for the Korean war and were joined by fellow pacifists. They chose Monteverde because it suited their dairy farming skills and with Costa Rica having no army, their pacific inclinations. They were the first to preserve and conserve the unique cloud forest environment.
The tourists have now arrived in a serious way. I felt the place had the feel of a ski resort without the snow. The Lonely Planet puts it very well. I quote "On a good day, the Monteverde area is a place where you can be inspired about the possibility of a world in which organic farming and alternative energy sources are the norm; on a bad day, it can feel like Disneyland in Birkenstocks. " .
Have a look at the town. Sometimes the weather is bright and sunny but the cloud is never far away and each evening a strong wind gets up and we can hear it whistling through our building.
There's lots of activities to do, many of them aiming at the adrenaline junkies such as zip-lines, bungee jumping, Tarzan swings etc. There is also the locally relevant and educational like seeing something of the unique flora and fauna and learning how local people earn their living apart from tourism.
We decided to book on the coffee plantation tour, a night guided walk in the forest and finally a hike in the cloud forest. The next blog will be about how these activities pan out. Let's finish with a couple more pictures of the place.
You see it's all rather wild west or frontier in appearance but the town has to cope with quite extreme weather, particularly rain and wind. The camera does tend to iron out the steep gradients.
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