Today I got to wake up later than usual due to our 9:30 departure to Monte Verde. We had a very long bus ride and we got to see a lot more of the rural parts of Costa Rica along the way. One observation I had along the way was that there were many houses that were scattered along the mountainside and it seemed many people were isolated from any neighbors. When I realized this I was thinking of how they all went and got to school since Costa Rica has about a 109% school enrollment rate. While I do not know the answer it is nice to see that even in the rural parts of Costa Rica people have both education and electricity.
On our way we took a couple stops to look at souvenirs and animals (the latter was much cooler). For our first shop we stopped at a souvenir shop which had a beautiful butterfly garden and a small petting zoo in the back with cows, sheep, and horses. It was fun to get off and take some close up pictures of all the animals as well as get some things to bring back home. Later we stopped on the side of the road to take some pictures of a pack of over 20 howler monkeys! Our guide Jorge told us that this was very rare to see and in all of his years as a guide he hadn’t seen this many monkeys, especially on the side of the road.
Once we arrived at Monte Verde we had a good Costa Rican lunch and then went straight into a guest lecture about the quaker influence in Costa Rica. There I learned that basically the entire area of Monte Verde was established by quakers who fled from the U.S. around WWII. These quakers created a cheese business in the area along with creating the very first source of electricity in the area using hydroelectric power. The quakers also worked to extend the roads into the area so that the horses didn’t have to walk in mud and they could have reliable transportation year round. The quakers did a great job in modernizing the area of Monte Verde in a sustainable and beautiful way.
We ended the day with an amazing night walk where we got to see some amazing critters and cute little bird. Afterwards we had an amazing dinner which had an amazing three courses. Overall, the best part was our quick stop with the animals but a very close second was the night walk.