So as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end and sadly our Eco-Adventure in Costa Rica is coming to an end today, but the memories will live on forever!
Butch and I were up pretty early and had some time before we needed to be knocking on Joan's door for breakfast, so we decided to hike up to level 9 -- the top level of the hotel. It was a pretty steep climb with spectacular views all along the way. On top is the hotel's zip line starting point. I climbed up on one of platforms and looked out over Monteverde and the valley below. I felt like I could see forever but still couldn't see the Pacific Ocean because of the clouds. I guess that's why they call it the cloud forest!
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| View from the top |
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| Selfie of Butch and me |
Then we headed back down the hill and we were practically forced to run because the road was so steep. Certainly a lot quicker going down than it was going up. On the way down we saw a critter similar to one Butch had seen the day before when he was exploring. He thought it was a tapir, but he found out from Victor that tapirs are much bigger animals and this was more like a large rat. Victor said it was most likely an Agouti, which are rodents and are like a big guinea pig with longer legs and a short tail. I read one article about them that said they are "scatter hoarders" that bury fruits, nuts, seeds etc. throughout the forest but half the time they forget where they buried them (I can relate!!). The things that they forget about can germinate and grow into new plants which disperses new plant species throughout the forest. That's pretty cool -- they are helping with the ongoing reforestation effort in Costa Rica. I took a picture of him, but it was really bad, so I won't share.
We also saw a coatimundi aka coati around the registration area later this morning. These critters are members of the raccoon family. We have them in Arizona, but I've never seen one in the wild. Here's the best (but not great) picture I got of him.
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| Cute Coati |
So once we got back to level 5 and hooked up with Joan, we brought our big luggage out to go into the bus and then headed down to level 1 for breakfast. After breakfast, our 1 big group was splitting up into 3. There were 4 people leaving for the US from the airport in Liberia, so there was a van to deliver them there. There was another group of about 12 that had chosen the optional 2 nights Guanacaste Beach Stay on the Pacific Ocean. There was a small coach to take them to their destination. The rest of us were heading to San Jose to catch flights home either today or tomorrow. We were riding in the big coach with Julio driving and Victor on board.
Victor and Julio had planned on taking a different route to San Jose that didn't include the by now infamous "Oh My God Road". However, when they were checking road information this morning, they found out that one of the roads they planned to travel was going to be closed off and on throughout the day for construction. Since people had planes to catch, they decided they couldn't take a chance on people not getting to the airport in time for their flights, so we ended up going on the OMG Road and only had to wait about 30 minutes for it to reopen. It wasn't raining today, so the road didn't seem as scary as when we were on it several days ago -- or maybe we were just immune to the thrill!
Along the way, we passed by the Port of Caldera, which is one of the two most important ports in Costa Rica. The other is the Port of Limón on the Caribbean side, which is the largest port in the country. We also passed by Victor's town of Esparza, where he'll be heading later in the day.
Since we weren't flying out until tomorrow, we had reservations at the Hampton Inn so when we got to the San Jose airport, we got our luggage and found the hotel shuttle area and waited for their shuttle. Once at the hotel, it felt almost like being in Butte or Missoula at the Hampton -- same decor etc. The original plan was to do a little sight seeing around San Jose this afternoon, but about the time we arrived at the hotel, the skies opened up. We ended up just walking next door using umbrellas supplied by the Hampton (Thank You!) and had a late lunch/early dinner (linner, as Butch likes to call it) at a casino/bar/restaurant. We sat in the bar area to eat and there were a bunch of TVs each tuned to a different sport. On several there were soccer matches (of course), American football on one, auto racing on one and much to Butch's delight, round 3 of the Master's golf tournament on another.
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| Watching the Masters in Costa Rica! |
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| Waiting for some grub! |
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Not something you see at the Hampton in Butte!
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It turns out we were all exhausted after such an enjoyable week of new adventures and exciting activities, so after we had dessert and coffee at Denny's (of all places 😁), which was right next door to the casino, we headed back to the hotel and were in bed early.
Postscript: Our trip back to the US on Sunday, April 8th, was long but uneventful. We left the Hampton a little before 8 as our flight was at 10:30. We left San Jose on time and arrived in Miami a little early. We had to retrieve our checked bags in Miami and go through immigration and customs and then recheck the bags. This process actually went very quickly as much of it is now automated. From Miami, we went to Dallas and then Tucson. We were at the house by midnight. The dogs and bird were in good shape and happy to see us and we were happy to see them, as well.
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