Reptiles in Monteverde (Nov 21st, 2010)

Today we left La Fortuna for Monteverde but before our departure, we realized how amazing the view of the Arenal Volcano was from our hotel. Being photography geeks and all, we pulled out the tripod I had brought along with me and Omar took some great shots with his DSLR and I snapped a few pictures from my cannon as well.

After packing up and checking out, we started the drive from La Fortuna towards Monteverde. It was interesting to realize that the line-of-sight distance from La Fortuna to Monteverde is very small, however, there is no direct route to Monteverde. One possibility was to take a taxi to a boat to a taxi to get from La Fortuna to Monteverde. Since we had a rental car, we could not take this route and hence we had to resort to the only other option, to drive all the way around Lake Arenal to get to Monteverde.

The scenery along the drive was truly a sight to see. We drove up through mountains, through clouds, down ravines, and past all types of domesticated animals. We even got to see a beautiful rainbow after the rain stopped for a bit. I think just these sights alone made the long drive worth it for us.

Even though it seems like the drive would take less than 3 hours, the weather conditions and road conditions did not help and we ended up arriving in Monteverde in the evening. At that point we could not do a lot so we decided to head to the beach and hang out for a bit. The wind gust and the tide prevented us from going too far into the water but we still enjoyed the area and the walk on the beach.

After the beach, we decided that we would go visit the reptile exhibition in Monteverde. This was a small building that housed various types of reptiles found throughout Costa Rica. We saw everything from snakes to pythons to tarantulas.  After viewing the various reptiles on display, we decided to get some food since all of us were hungry. We drove around for a bit until we found a restaurant that served pizza and ordered take-out from there. We were so exhausted from the drive that we ate and quickly went to bed so we could be ready for a day of hiking in the cloud forest of Monteverde.

Here are some pictures from our day of driving and reptiles.