The road to Monteverde will take a couple of years off your life, but it's worth it.
Monteverde was our first destination, and we headed out early in the morning, taking Route 1 - Costa Rica's share of the Pan-American Highway - for the first part of the way. It's mostly a two-lane road that Bedford County, Virginia, wouldn't be particularly proud of, and had the usual two-lane road problem of repeatedly getting stuck behind trucks with heavy loads going very slowly. However, as Tina noted, there was scarcely any litter along the roadside.
We made a rest stop near Puntarenas. Graven, our driver, climbed atop the van to make sure our luggage wasn't going to fall off. We took the chance to stretch our legs and admire the view.
Soon enough we were on the unpaved road to Monteverde. At the outset, we passed a Land Rover parked beside the road and absolutely covered with dust. "Is that what our van is going to look like?" I asked. Turns out I wasn't far off.
It's only about 30 kilometers to Monteverde, but it takes close to two hours. I think I may have nightmares forever about hairpin turns above sheer drops. Graven was trying hard to avoid bumps and potholes, and at times he would swerve from one side of the road to the other. It was heart-stopping when the side he was swerving toward was the one with the sheer drop. I remember at one point looking down at a cow that must have been less than a hundreds yards away from me in the horizontal direction but seemed to be about a quarter mile down.
The town of Monteverde looks like the usual tourist trap, with billboards and come-ons and tacky souvenir shops. I wasn't impressed until we got to our stunning hotel, Belmar, and its stunning view.
We settled in, then headed over to the reserve for a quick visit. We got to check out the hummingbirds at their array of feeders, took in a quick slide show, and got to see a coatimundi atop the building with the restrooms.
We got on the van to head back, but then another couple asked about walking back, and we decided to join them. They quickly went on ahead, but we took our time and took numerous photographs of the view and of a gorgeous rainbow we encountered on the way back.
It was better than riding in the van over that road, but it was a good two miles on a rough road, and we were still pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel.
| Pedro poses in front of the van as Graven makes sure our luggage isn't going to fall off. | |
 |
| The view from the rest stop, with the Golfo de Nicoya in the distance. |
 |
| The view from the road to Monteverde. |
| The Belmar |  |
 | The view from our balcony at the hotel |
| Hummingbirds at the refuge feeding station. |  |
 | Coatimundi atop the roof of the restrooms (it had been sleeping) |
 |
| A view during the walk back |
 |
| Blessed by a rainbow during the walk |