Costa Rica Series: Santa Elena

After our day in La Fortuna, we were off to the Monteverde cloud forest. A cloud forest is like a rain forest at a high altitude. The air is so moist and foggy that it looks like you are in a cloud. Well, I guess you are in a cloud. Anyway, we crossed a large lake, Laguna de Arenal, on a ferry and headed by van to Santa Elena, a very small mountain town. 

We drove through beautiful rolling coffee fields and a few small towns like this one.

An excerpt from my journal about our arrival in Santa Elena: 

July 21, 2006 - It's raining in Santa Elena. I am told that it's always raining in Santa Elena. I climb the hill to get to El Mar Inn, dodging cars and buses, side stepping stray rocks that are aiming for my feet. Four little boys pass me, smiling and giggling. As I enter El Mar Inn, I realize that in Santa Elena, it also rains inside. 

I have a conversation, in Spanish, with the woman in the lobby. I make a phone call, using a spanish language calling card with a spanish speaking automated voice, and call Cafe Britt, the coffee company I am studying, to arrange a meeting for when I am back in San Jose, in Spanish.

I think what I meant by "It also rains inside" is that the air was wet, inside and out. No matter where you were, the air was saturated with moisture. This is the "view" from the Inn balcony when we arrived. Beyond that fog, there is a mountain of greenness. I was also impressing myself with my spanish skills at this point in the trip. Later in the week, I caught myself counting money in my head in Spanish and I think I even had a dream in Spanish.

When we were eating lunch at this little restaurant, a man walked by along the road. He was carrying what looked like a keg of beer on his back. I don't know that it was beer, it just looked like a large heavy barrel that surely would be way too heavy to walk around with, but there he was, walking up a hill with it on his back. He was a little old man too. He looked over at us and said, "Buen dìa!" smiling, with this heavy thing on his back. It seems like a very simple moment, but it was very surreal at the time. 

Buen dìa is a shortening of buenos dìas, which is what I learned in school. I guess it's like saying hey instead of hello. Everyone says the phrase you take home from Costa Rica is pura vida, which means pure life, referring to the relaxed attitude you find pretty much everywhere in the country. I think buen dìa was the phrase that stuck with me, though.

The next big adventure was zip lining through the Monteverde cloud forest. This was crazy! For a girl that isn't too fond of heights, I did pretty well. I only chickened out on one zip line, at the highest point, that required you to climb a narrow tower, in the wind, in order to take off. Wind is a big factor in my am I going to be scared of this hight? equation, so I opted to take a nice little private walk to the next stop. Really, if the other option is a nice little private walk through a jungle, I'm okay with that.

After being in Costa Rica for almost a week, and especially Santa Elena for a few days, I started to feel, and look, like a hippie. I think it's a requirement for being in the town that you own at least one piece of tie dyed clothing. 

We stopped in a little grocery store to get a few snacks and found this would-be comrade. And no, I didn't try to find Nacogdoches on his shirt map.

This church was also really neat. It looks so humble, but you could hear the church bells throughout the entire town. And the entire town went to this church. It was THE church.

The next stop on our trip was Quepos, which I'll tell you about in the next Costa Rica Series post. It still feels like I don't remember very many details, but these little bits, like the church bells and buen dìa, are nice to recall.