Today we left the Central Valley of Heredia and traveled up to the mountains of Monteverde. I’m going to be honest, after Stacey warned us that it was a pretty windy road I took 2 dramamine and fell asleep almost the whole ride. When I woke up it was like entering a completely new country. It was SO beautiful I can’t even explain it. Photos don’t even do it justice. We were driving along a very thin road on the side of the mountain and down below you could see all of the valley. The depth of the mountains was unreal. It was like nothing I had seen before.
Something that stood out to me about the communities when I woke up was that everything was much more spread out than Heredia. It was a lot quieter and there was a ton of greenery and vegetation. My perception of Costa Rica changed because I realize that even driving 3-4 hours away in the same country can be totally different and it can have totally different climate. Speaking of climate, we were told that being in higher altitude would mean cooler weather. However, this seemed to be the opposite. When we got out at our first rest stop it was nearly 90 degrees. At the rest stop, I was very surprised to see so many animals. It was shocking actually. There were peacocks, horses, texas longhorns, and another lovely butterfly garden. This time I got to hold one!!
When we arrived at El Establo we had a nice lunch and then got to listen to Don Ricardo Guindon talk about the history of Monteverde. We learned that the Quakers from Alabama settled in Monteverde which transformed a lot of the culture and economy. The economy was changed for the better because the huge tourism boom transformed the economy, changed climate, and conservation molded the community. The community settled in a high agricultural region that came to be known as Monteverde. When they arrived here, the Quakers improved the roads, introduced hydroelectricity and built a school. The community established the region’s first corporation, a cheese factory that used Quaker Oats canisters as molds.
Overall today was a really relaxing day, with new sights to see. Tomorrow we hike through the Cloud Forest!
