Reluctantly, we left the Caribbean coast and headed inland to Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose. The city held no interest for us, but it did hold our intended rental car, which would whisk us through the rest of Costa Rica over the next four weeks. While Heather had been busy over the last week researching flights for upcoming legs of our winter trip and putting together our visit to Cuba for the end of February, she assigned me one task – find a rental car in San Jose. ‘How hard could that be’ I thought. I get online, find a local company, pick their cheapest vehicle, make the reservation. ‘Gonna save us a bunch of money’ I thought. Mission accomplished. Time for happy hour.

We spent the night in a wonderful B&B in San Jose that Heather found for us, with the added bonus that it was located within walking distance to the rental car office. After a nice breakfast we strolled the short distance to grab our car. As we entered the small lot there seemed to be lots of traffic in and out – folks picking up and dropping off cars. Not surprising, given its the height of the season here. We were greeted by a nice guy who spoke perfect English and he immediately called up our reservation on his computer. He seemed a little perplexed when he saw my vehicle selection. “I’ve never rented this vehicle before” the attendant said. “This is really for work” he added. Turns out I had rented a panel van. A cheap panel van. For a month. While Heather walked away and put her head in her hands, I asked if it were possible to substitute any car in place of my new work vehicle. “Nothing else is available since it’s high season” he told me. Panic started to set in. We went to inspect the van which was big, boxy and all white. He opened the rear door to expose a large, windowless, metal-encased cargo space, completely closed off from the driver’s compartment, which would have to hold our bags, as there was no room in the front for anything more than a cup of coffee (not even a grande). The seats didn’t have any adjustment. With no rear-view mirror and limited visibility through the side windows, I would have to roll down the windows in order to check traffic or attempt to back up. Trying to make light of the situation, he joked to Heather that we could save even more money by sleeping in the back. “That’s exactly what my husband will be doing” she deadpanned. Left with no alternative, we saddled up and drove out of the lot into the San Jose traffic, headed to the mountains. “Think of it as just another adventure” I offered. “Think of it as your bedroom” she retorted. But, true to her nature, after a half hour on the road, she smiled and began laughing at my screw-up.

While the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve is the most well-known, and most-visited, park in the area, there are several forest and wildlife preserves around Monteverde. Being the weekend, we decided to visit two other parks and leave the main attraction until Monday, when we thought the crowds would be lighter. On Saturday we headed to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. This park offered a variety of walking trails through dense cloud forest at the top of the mountain range. Immediately upon entering the preserve we marveled at the dense jungle, clouds swirling amongst the treetops, the sound of water dripping from the canopy above the only noise to be heard. We walked slowly and quietly and spoke in hushed voices, the magnitude of the space and the surreal beauty commanding respect and hushed admiration. “Magical” Heather said. “And I never use that word to describe something that’s not underwater!” ‘Mystical’ I thought – and I never use that word to describe something that’s not in Lord of the Rings. We crossed paths with only a half dozen or so folks, reinforcing our decision to avoid the more popular park over the weekend. We tried to make comparisons to other places we’ve been, but nothing really comes close to a cloud forest. It was a palette of greens, as the leafy trees were all covered with a layer of moss, and then entwined by creeping vines, which surrounded the trunks and cascaded from the branches above. Only occasionally would a lone flower make an appearance when an opening in the canopy allowed a small amount of sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. Beyond the sound of dripping water, no animals could be heard. This was forest – primeval and awesome.

 

Our next day took us to the Curi-Cancha Reserve, a lower elevation park, hence drier and with more open views. The Reserve is known for it’s birdlife, in particular as home to the brightly-plumed, and highly-sought (by birders) quetzal. This was the primary reason for our visit – to hopefully catch a glimpse of this bird. Luck was with us this day as minutes into the park’s walking trails we came across a small group gathered near an immense old avocado tree. Sure enough we were able to spot a male and female pair, resplendent in green, blue and red, with the male having an especially long and delicate tail. After an hour and countless photos later, the pair departed and I was able to convince Heather to move on to the rest of the park. Soon after, white-faced capuchin monkeys were spotted frolicking in the trees overhead. Continuing on, we walked along the well-maintained trails with our heads on a swivel, scanning the treetops for more wildlife. Our luck continued to follow us this day, for I just happened to glance down at the trail and was able to stop short – just two paces from a palm pit viper that was crossing in front of us. I could hear Heather suck in a breath as I put my arm out to stop her too. But as scared of snakes as she is (and who wouldn’t be scared of a pit viper) she instinctively brought her camera up before even moving a step back. The snake slowly crossed the trail and slithered off into the forest while we slowly began to breathe again. Returning to the avocado tree from earlier, we once again spotted not two, but three, quetzals. Later, as we passed through the park office on our way out we chatted with one of the naturalist guides. Seeing Heather’s photos of the viper, and given that we had seen five quetzals, he remarked “you are the luckiest visitors in the park today”. We know.

Our final day brought us to the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve. Given our incredible visit to the previous parks, and the number and variety of animals we had spotted, we weren’t holding out high expectations that we would be wowed again. But wouldn’t you know it, within the first minute upon entering the park we came across another pair of quetzals. Quite a welcome to be sure. After another hundred or so photos I once again persuaded Heather that we still had a big park to see and we set off on a series of trails that one of the rangers had suggested for us to follow. Beyond the quetzals the wildlife was scarce in the rest of the park and it was hard to get away from the crowds, but when we did the cloud forest here was equally impressive and inspiring. Also, we crossed a hanging bridge that allowed us to walk at the treetop level of the canopy, high enough that we couldn’t even make out the ground below.

All in all our visit to Monteverde far exceeded our expectations. Once again we were able to tick off another animal-sighting experience (or two), we enjoyed the wonder of the cloud forest and got in a good bit of hiking along the way. Now it was time to load up the ol’ panel van and hit the coast for some beach time.