Monteverde

The morning was pleasant and we got a 30 second glimpse of the top of the active Arenal Volcano. Hannif and I decided we wanted to go to Rio Celeste, which is a beautiful, off the beaten path river with amazing colors and waterfalls. While trying to figure out how to get there (headache) and where to stay (headache), we decided to instead go to Monteverde due to conveniance and the possibility of reaching Rio Celeste from there.

We had to wait from 11:30 until 14:30 for the transport and asked the gentleman working at the hostel if there were any waterfalls we could walk to. We (Hannif, another Israeli, and myself) took a 25 minute walk to a sweet swimming spot just off the side of a road. 10 foot water falls dropping into a nice deep pool and a ROPE SWING! This was a blast, so much fun and the highlight of the trip so far. It was most amusing watching Hannif deliberate for over an hour whether to jump with the rope swing (10? foot drop) and struggling to simply walk into the water because it was 'cold' (65-70* F) . He did finally jump and seemed to be proud of himself for overcoming his fears.

The ride to Monteverde ($22) was a 3-hour Van-Boat-Van transport which turned out to be very scenic and enjoyable. It cost $15 more than trying to piece together an 8+ hour public bus ride, but I think it was well worth it in the end. We met a couple other solo travelers on the transport, David from Switzerland and Kris from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia. They got in on Monday as well, and also met on the way to La Fortuna...now there is four of us staying at Pension Santa Elena ($7), a hip and crowded hostel right in downtown Santa Elena (where most people stay when they speak of Monteverde).

Had a nice dinner at the place reccomended at the hostel as where the locals go to each lunch. Rice and black beans, marinated beef and pasta salad for 2800 colones ($5.02). Big portion and a much needed meal.

So Costa Rica is expensive. It's not cheap, don't let people tell you that. It's not. There are restaurants here in Santa Elena that charge $12 for a burrito, there are bars that chared $2.50 for the standard Imperial beer. The only thing that is reasonably cheap are the hostels. Maybe I've just been in too touristy of areas, but these areas are touristy for a reason, because there's stuff to see and do. Costa Rica = America + Spanish Language