 Marvelous Monteverde |
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Last night we went on our night walk in the Children's Eternal Rainforest with our guide, Christian, who believes that Texaco and the Power Rangers are controlled by Satanists. It was pretty amazing to walk along the trail in the dark and see only what fell into the beam of our flashlight. We saw sleeping birds -- a spotted wood thrush, a pia pia, and two bright green toucanettes. We saw a green vine snake, crickets and grasshoppers, a leech, two ringtail salamanders, a glowworm (my favorite), a walking stick, a leaf bug, lots of ants, a GIANT raccoon, a two-toed sloth, two tarantulas, a katydid, and a buttload of spiders. We also heard a mottled owl and white-faced capuchin monkeys. Sometimes I got scared that we'd miss a step or trip over a root and go tumbling over the edge of the trail into a ravine or that I'd come face to face with something terrifying, but we never did. I think night walks like this should be required for anyone who tends to be afraid of the dark or creepy creatures because they teach you that even the creepiest-looking things are really just trying to survive life in the forest and mind their own business. One of my favorite aspects of the tour was the way Christian told us about all the ways that creatures and trees live in a state of mutualism or symbiosis … the moths who live in the sloth's fur and I can't remember all the details but like the ants who live in the hollows of one tree and destroy anything that might threaten the tree. I think that's one of the coolest things about the way of the world … the way everything has a purpose. I can open my mind about basically everything we saw out there and about every single one of the earth's scariest creatures. I can appreciate them even if being grossed out by them. Except cockroaches, of course. :::  We just had breakfast at Stella's. The light was streaming in through the windows. I love all of the natural wood. I had scrambled eggs and wheat toast and he had some kind of orgasmic pastry with cream cheese and herbs. We each had a mighty fine cappuccino that he said resembled a desert sunset in all of its glorious layers. We walked across the street to Café Monteverde and to CASEM, where all sorts of beautiful handmade items are sold. We're planning to go back there and drop some cash. We're getting ready to be picked up for the hanging bridges and canopy tour/zip lines. I will not be doing any zipping but I'm excited to check out the bridges and butterflies. This weather is so perfect that I could die.  ::: It's now later. We took a 35-minute drive up to Selvatura so he could do the canopy tour/zip lines and I could do the 3-kilometer hike and the hanging bridges. He's still zipping and I'm chilling in the hummingbird garden after my hike. Hummingbirds are loud. I tried to get close enough to take a picture of one, but it took off and I had to swerve in order to avoid being beak-blinded. I've never noticed how maniacally they dart around. They sure are pretty, though, even though they emit a sound that sounds like a mixture of the world's largest bumblebee and bullfrog combined. 
My hike was pretty great. I was surrounded by zillions of plants and trees and spiderwebs and all I could hear were the birds and the water babbling below me in the streams. It was kind of scary to make the trek in total solitude but pretty cool, too. I never passed another hiker the entire way. 
When I reached the first hanging bridge, I thought this isn't so scary, but that's before I realized that they creak with a rickety whine that isn't exactly reassuring and that even though they appear to be quite sturdy upon approach, they do in fact sway and rock with every step. I cannot lie and say I wasn't a mite terrified on some level every time I crossed one, but I tried to stop for a moment on each bridge and say to myself, stop. Take a breath. Listen to the water hitting the rocks beneath you. Stare at the tops of the treetops down below. Look where you are, practically in the sky. It was both unsettling and thrilling to be all by myself.  :::  Later. We had a bumpy ride back to our hotel and then headed back to Café Monteverde, where he had a cappuccino and I had a perfect chocolate caliente made by Marko, the diligent baristo. We visited with Lorraine and her kitty, Chilito. She came here for one boyfriend and stayed for the next. We had some warm banana bread. 
We came back to the hotel and watched the sunset through our windows and then we headed out to Pizzeria de Johnny. He had pesto bruschetta and I had minestrone and he had a Monteverde pizza and I had a vegetable pizza with an Imperial. We then headed down to Sabores Ice Cream Parlor and had some ice cream cones with Jean, the North Dakotan who has a dairy farm here and has been here for twenty-eight years. Here's the thing about Monteverde … getting here is a bitch. As bad as everyone warns you the road will be, it's all that and then some. And it's not like once you get here it's all harmonious and smooth. The roads are just more of the same. Every time you drive somewhere, you just moan and pray that you won't flip over into a giant hole or that your tires won't fly off into orbit. You feel your vertebrae smashing together and your teeth rattling. The roads, they are ferocious. But the restaurants are quaint and the forest is beautiful and the people are nice and there are lots of cute dogs and cats and the Fonda Vela is just dynamite. I could sit out in those chairs overlooking the trees and hills for hours on end. And Veronica and Wilfredo at the front desk have been great. My face is currently the color of a tomato. I didn't realize how fried I was getting while sitting in the Selvatura hummingbird garden. When asked why my face hurts, I replied, "Porque sol fiero." And that's the non-extent of my non-Spanish. Sometimes I feel like a loser for not being able to speak it at all and not being able to practice it with him but what can I do? I hope tonight we get a good night's sleep to prepare us for our last full day in Monteverde tomorrow. 
© Copyright 2005 elb |
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