Mountains, Cloud Forest and Volcanoes ⛰️

We left that morning with a surfboard and a bunch of bananas on the roof, hope and smiles on faces just as the day was heating up. Down one bumpy hill side to take the second right, straight back up another 40km of windy, scenic mountain roads into the cloud forest and one of Costa Rica's tourism hub, the National Park of Monteverde, the 'green mountain'.

We pulled up in the town square with the usual turn of heads, stuck our British stickers on the van and took a walk for lunch in the forest to see a famous fig tree that had grown into a bridge across the river. It was good to be in the cool air. Some more exploring of town then drove out to the National Park to be in the depths of the rainforest. Nerding out over big gnarly trees, sucking up fresh air and a café date to enjoy the crazy zipping and flitting fun of dozens of hummingbirds feeding all around us, fly-bys inches from our faces. We parked up early for the night on a service road overlooking this corner of town with the view of mountains, lowlands, gulf and peninsula as the clouds came in and covered the night. Our first night proper and that night we slept ever so soundly.

I got Jelly up early much to her dislike and couldn't even offer a coffee as we hadn't found 5mins to find gas yet but we had parked at the head of a trail up the mountain and a free hike is a always a bonus in CR! An hour straight up, sweaty as you like and its 7am. We sat at the view point looking down into the valley and watched the clouds pass the mountain tops over dense primary rainforest then ducked past some angry dogs and pick up a barely used trail down into the thick forest. Trail advice was bring a machete and it was right. We scrambled around a while, crossed a stream and found the starting point again. It was so humid we were wet through but snuck back past the dogs and down the hill, never to see another soul but plenty of chatter from the treetops.

We moved on that afternoon back down the other side towards the big lake and volcano of Arenal. An awful unpaved drive for 2hrs into the nearest town. Excitedly found gas then skipped town to a small village on the lake side with a water front peninsula campsite to give us some space to reset, wash and move into the van properly. Almost span out on the greasy grass headland but got Franky back to where he belongs, a perfect camp in the shade of trees. Hammock slung, monkeys above us, birds over the water and a lake view, all to ourselves, it was good to be back!

There was such life in this place! In the night I almost walked into an armadillo then watched him walk in the fence (twice!). Scorpions and spiders in the toilet block and we woke to screams from the howler monkeys next to us and parrots in the trees. We made the most of an empty camp and did our laundry with a very relaxing start to the day then moved on, couldn't find anyone to pay on the way out so grabbed some lunch and found another peaceful corner of the peninsula to while away to afternoon.

Desperate to get a glimpse of the famous Volcano we skirted the ring road via a couple of miradors (viewpoints) and there it was, the perfect cone at the end of the lake! Following round this lush green ring road we pulled into a bar/ restaurant called El Mirador. The boss came out to see what the rumble was all about and we awkwardly asked if we could crash in the car park. He warmed to our bad Español, the deal, beers and food and he helped us park up under the awning. Seems he knew how to get us easy! His wife, the true boss checked us out and happily fed me a big tico tea with beers and sunset views. Pura vida!