Yesterday I left Montezuma at 8am and did not arrive in Monteverde until
11pm last night. We should have arrived around 5p…but ended up getting
stuck in a traffic jam for 6 hours. The first four, we waited on the side of
the road. The last two had us crawling at a snail’s pace in an extremely hot
bus breathing diesel fumes in an attempt to get past a huge wreck in which 3
people died. After we were past the traffic, we still had another 2 hours of
regular travel ahead…uughhh. Unfortunately, the road system in Costa Rica
is very different than in the States and there is often only one route that
you can take to get from one place to another. Because they closed the road
for 3 hours, traffic was backed up for miles in both directions. It was
pretty crazy.
However, on the bright side, I met some really cool people and will be
traveling with them the next few days. There are the Yale Business School
boys – Warren, Sam, and Manish. They are hysterical, but definitely
overanalyze everything. There is Bo, a country boy from Tennessee. Lastly,
there is Karen, a very boisterous girl from South Africa. We´re having a
blast so far.
Today we went and did the zip line tour through the Monteverde Rainforest.
The zip lines are amazing as most of them take you right over the canopy. I
believe the longest we did was about 600 meters (3/8 of a mile). There was
also a tarzan swing in which you basically fall from a platform and just as
you think you are about to fall to your death, the rope suddenly pulls you
out and swings you forward through the trees. I don´t think I´ve ever
screamed so loud in my life, but the zip line tour was definitely the best
thing I´ve done so far here.
Tonight is going to be pretty chill. We´re just going to hang out at the
hotel, swing on the hammocks there, drink some wine and then probably head
into Monteverde for some dinner. I think a french couple that was on our bus
may meet up with us too.
Tomorrow, we´re taking the Jeep-Boat-Jeep tour to Volcano Arenal, which is
supposed to be a lot of fun, so I´m pretty excited. I´ve heard there are
some amazing hot springs there as well.
Good Times & Tan Lines 