The Cloud Forest

We had one week to explore Costa Rica. We chose two spots – the Arenal Volcano region, which we wrote about here and Monteverde, known as The Cloud Forest. We wanted to see the Pacific coast and the southern part of the country, but when you travel by car through this country, you spend at least a day getting from one place to another. The roads in many places are bad, there’s just no way around that one. But even when the roads are bad, the scenery is so dramatic, so breathtaking,  your mind censors the potholes.

So on the morning of June 8, we set out in our little 4X4, headed for Monteverde and Arco Iris Lodge in Santa Elena. Just as we were leaving the property of the Arenal Lodge, the guard at the gate pointed upward. A pair of howler monkeys were bidding us farewell!  Well, the wave probably wasn’t for us, but I took this to be a positive omen for our journey.

The trip was supposed to take four hours, an ascent into the mountains to around 5,900 feet, higher than Denver, Colorado. The first hour or so, the road was fine – paved, with the usual dangerous bridge alert on our GPS.  At one point, Megan asked about the place we were going to be staying, Arco Iris. “What’s it like, Mom?”

“No clue,” I replied. “Got it off the internet.”

“Hmm,” she murmured. “Usually when you do that, the second place isn’t as cool as the first.”

Good point. Arenal Lodge would be tough to beat.

In some little village where we got coffee, the good road ended and the potholes began and the road was never again paved. But along the way, we met a baby goat, gasped at precipitous drops on one side of the narrow road, and could still pick up email on our cells.  Yes, I confess, this was more important for me than for Rob and was one of the criteria I used for lodging. How’s your Internet? I wish I could be more like Mike Perry, who travels to far flung spots with his wife and doesn’t even take a cell phone or laptop with him. But that’s not part of my script in this lifetime.

Finally, we reached the outskirts of…well, something. It looked like civilization, but the GPS was acting weird and we weren’t sure. We were supposed  to drive through a school soccer field. We were  in a town and were supposed to go down a hill and turn into what looked like an alley.  But suddenly, we were there.

The Arco Iris Lodge – the Rainbow Lodge – is tucked away on a hill off a well-traveled road in the village of Santa Elena.  Everything in town is within walking distance.But as we drove up the steep hill to the property, it was immediately obvious we were  in another world. Two friendly dogs and a cat greeted us. The man at the front desk spoke perfect English and took us over to cabin 1. Two bedrooms, one bath, a living room with TV, a small fridge for snacks, and yes, Internet!

The wide front porch overlooked the grounds and every afternoon, the fog rolled in and I felt as if I were walking into   scene from my novel, Esperanza. The first photo shows just how thick the fog gets. This is where we saw Capuchin monkeys zipping through a clutch of trees. We discovered a trail up through the property that led into an orchard of fruit trees, a small coffee plantation,  a place for the chickens that lay the eggs that were served for breakfast.

And here, in a magical moment that startled all of us, we encountered a white horse in a forest. A day later, we encountered two white horses in this forest, near a stream, and in my mind, they immediately became white unicorns, here but not here. When one of them charged Megan, we leaped back into the trees and they galloped past us, up a steep incline.

Santa Elena is a vibrant little town. Incredible restaurants, including one that is appropriately named Treetop, because a giant ceiba tree grows through the middle of it. People from all over the world come here for the ziplining. Unlike Arenal Lodge, where the guided hiking and horseback riding are free, nearly every  activity in this area costs something. That’s because most of the land is privately owned and is a preserved wilderness.

One day we paid a small fee for a guided tour through the rain forest and saw the largest and grossest spider I have ever seen – a tarantula that lived in the hollow of a tree. When the guide stomped on the ground near its tree, this sucker scampered out, and it was the size of a man’s fist. Atavistic. A throwback to some more primitive time. We also saw a pair of tremendous owls, the size of a barn, it seemed, perched together on a branch. “They mate for life,” the guide said. “Where there is one, there are always two.”

Every guide we encountered in Monteverde was an amateur biologist. Every waiter was a connoisseur of foods or wines, coffee or desserts. Every hotel clerk gave a little extra in time and knowledge. In the local market, every fruit and vegetable we saw was huge, excessive in size,  and prices were reasonable. Standing in line at the register, Rob noticed a woman wearing a black Namaste t-shirt and said, “My wife has one of those.”

It turned out that she and her husband were American expats who owned and operated a yoga studio in town, and that afternoon Rob  did some yoga in their studio while Megan and I shopped.  This was the town where Megan had the opportunity to head out for fun and exploration with  some girls her age from Australia who she’d met while we ziplined. This was the magical place where the sound of rain on rooftops whisks you back to your childhood.

I found that Costa Rica is my little paradise – and not just for the obvious environmental delights. You won’t find a single nuclear plant here. Electricity is generated through wind, solar, steam, hydro. They have no army, no death penalty. They welcome Americans. They respect and preserve the resources they have. The government is stable. And well, then there’s the odd animal life, like Stephanie, the macaw, and her ilk,  or the strange encounters in the woods with the unicorns.

Magic is the key to Costa Rica.

Inside the treetop restaurant