Costa Rica Chapter 3: Monteverde & Santa Elena
I've finally reached the end of my series of my Costa Rica travels! This post is full of adventures through our stay in Monteverde & Santa Elena and was definitely the highlight of our trip! We started off on a Cafè de Monteverde coffee plantation tour (which deserves a whole post of it's own really) and it was full of information not only about coffee, but of the town itself. It defnitely was all very interesting to learn! As coffee lovers ourselves, it was nice to see the creation and life of a bean from birth to final product. Gives me that much more respect for daily cup of coffee (ok more like 2-3 cups). Besides our coffee tour, we indulged in a zip-lining canopy tour which was amaaazing! Unfortunately most of this experience lives only in my memory as I did decide to leave my valuables back at our place. Sorry, I got scared I'd drop my precious DSLR!Another big highlight of our stay here was of course the family we stayed with. Teresita and Eli were such gracious hosts! Their property is a like a forest of its own, complete with trails, plenty of wildlife and plants of all kinds. We ended up staying just down the road from their house in a little apartment above Eli's mother and sister's house, known for it's view of the sunset (Spanish: atardecer). It was perfect. Private, quaint, and included a giant delicious breakfast handmade for just the two of us every morning! The best part was the sense of community at the main house. People from all over the world were staying in the cabins on the property and we got to meet a bunch of fellow travelers! If you read through my last post, you know how much I love meeting new people and how it makes the trip so much better and the memories that much more valuable to me. I'll keep this post short, as I know there's lot of photos below! Just a forewarning, our trek through the Santa Elena Reserve was in the heart of a cloud forest (persistently moist and foggy terrain) and it was something out of a movie to me! There was all encompassing green. Everywhere. Bright green leaves, moss, ferns, bushes just surrounding us. I feel like my photos don't do it justice, but hopefully you still get a sense of the sheer variety of flora and fauna and ethereal beauty that lives in Costa Rica! Pura Vida!!
Teresita and Eli's adorable son Esteban showing us around the property and showing off his tree climbing skills!
Our adorable little apartment with views of this breath taking sunset, with the Gulf of Nicoya is the background!
Visited this little cafe on more than one occasion! Below is the traditional way to brew Costa Rican coffee. Got one of these as a souvenir as well!
As an avid craft beer drinker, Nick definitely grew weary of seeing pretty much only three varieties of beer everywhere we went. My husband was a happy camper when we found this little gem in the heart of Santa Elena!
Our lovely host family! Huge thank you to you all!!