COSTA RICA - Day 9 - Monte Verde Cloud Forest

It is our last full day in Costa Rica. Lulu wanted one more last try and "finding nature." The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve was less than a mile from our cottage. we woke up this morning hoping our covid test results would be in our email - they were not. So we decided to walk in the jungle -up to the top of the mountain to the continental divide. You probably learned and forgot in grade school what the great divide is. It is an imaginary line on the ground from Alaska to Chile. On one side of the line - the water runs into the Atlantic. On the other side of the line - the Pacific gets the water. One could literally walk that line and pee - and you could determine which ocean it will end up in :-)

In Costa Rica - it almost runs eats and west - with the Atlantic to the north and the Pacific to the south. The winds blow up over the mountains from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This makes The Atlantic side lush and green as the rain falls going up the mountain. the Pacific side of the mountain is drier and more brownish from dried plants. 

25%. of Costa Rican land is locked up in natural preserves. I guess there is some tax incentive to say your land is a preserve. I am guessing you promise to keep it natural - and you avoid taxes - but still own it. 

In Costa Rica - major roads are pretty good - paved well - but they meander very much. It is hard to average over 30 miles per hour. It took us 3 hours to get from Monteverde to San Jose. For a spell - we were on Costa Rica Highway 1 - this is part of the famous Pan American Highway. One can drive from Alaska to Argentina. 

Along the way - we got emails that said our covid tests were negative - we could go home tomorrow. 

We pulled into our Hampton Inn by the airport. We went shopping in a local mall and had supper. WE filled the rental car with gasoline and took it back to the airport. We drove a total of 507 miles. Avis took us back to our hotel and here we are. 

Tomorrow - Tuesday - we fly from San Jose to Dallas to Tallahassee. After I get home tomorrow - I will give a final report. 

Our chalet had water heaters like this. Simple - the sun heats the water - it comes down into the house. 

We did not see nearly the wildlife we expected. 

We saw wild impatiens - in the forest. 

Elevation 1600 meters - that is the metric mile. 

We walked along the Continental Divide.

Looking west we saw the Pacific.

Looking east we saw rain clouds obscure the Atlantic.

I was leaning because I was tired. There was a gentle mist in my face. 

I loved this Suzuki Jimmy - 4WD. I had two similar Suzuki Samurais back in the 80s and 90s. They still make them new but do not import them to the USA. 

Monteverde was full of four wheel drives because their roads were poor. 

The was taken from down by the Pacific looking up to the Continental Divide. 

You could see the clouds roll down over the mountain.

The shipping port of Caldera was along Route 1.

The City Mall in San Jose was full of American chain stores. 

From the mall - I watched the clouds roll down the mountain. 

We had ice cream at Pop's in the mall. This was the view from Pop's. We shared a banana split at Pop's twice.