[ Zoom Map ]

Monteverde, Costa Rica
10° 36' N 85° 16' W
Dec 09, 2005 00:06
Distance 71km

Choose another map, showing:

• Mexico (South)
• Mexico
• The Caribbean
• Transatlantic
• The World

Other entries in Monteverde

The Lion

Text written in: English

Noah and I's experience in Fortuna/ Volcan arrenal was great considering it was our first one. We felt a little too much like tourists, but all in all for a first leg it was a success.

Yesterday we hiked up to a point that was good to view the Volcano exploding, (which was mildly dissapointing because most of the action was covered by low clouds and smoke) and then went to a hot springs which was great to relax in after a good hike. After talking to our guide and some students in our hiking trip we were convinced monteverde was the next best place to go.

we awoke early the next morning to try and find a place to book the ¨¨jeep boat jeep¨¨ to monteverde (which is literally just a car a boat and a car that takes you to monteverde), when we were stopped by our hotel owner (the lion who I mentioned earlier). He had apparently spent the night in the room next to ours with someone else (i saw someone else in the room, plus he was very bleary eyed, and disheveled wearing his clothes from the night before), and was going to make sure that we were going to stay another day. After we told him our plans he asked us to come back to him with the price we had found so he could beat that price. Unfortunately, we did not book with the lion because we just didnt think that we would have time to find a price come back and haggle with the lion and still make the morning trip, so Noah and I had to come back with the bad news. we explained why we hadn't booked our trip with him, and then he proceeded to explain to us that he knew the owner of the jeep boat jeep and he sometime let people go with only a dollar profit for the booking. He seemed vaguely  dissapointed, yet he continued to explain to us the interworkings of his relationship with jeep boat jeep, and then in that moment, the funny character of the lion seemed very sad.

He seemed sad because he seemed desperate for us just to listen to him speak even though we were in a hurry to pack up and catch the jeep. he seemed sad because here was a man who seemed t o be a free spirit, he was a rasta (with dreads), and a cowboy (with boots and a hat), and a business man (with his own hotel), but at that moment he seemed to be a huge failure at 2 of those things.  Instead of being really interesting, as a rasta cowboy hotel owner might be , he was mostly just absurd. I can't pretend to know all that much about the lion because our interactions were limited, but by the end of 30 hours at his small hotel I came to the conclusion that this man might not be happy.

I was thinking about all this During the boat ride across lago arrenal toward the 2nd jeep to monteverde, but eventually was disrupted by the beauty of the place. nestled between the volcano and rolling green hills, this place litterally grabbed your attention and turned you into a zombie. seriously its hard to talk sometimes during the trips from place to place,. you just want to stare at the country side.

In Monteverde noah and I did a canopy zipline tour, very touristy but very fun, and now we will eat a small dinner and continue on to punta arena onthe coast early in the morning.