Melissa’s Soapbox

As we were leaving Panama to fly to Costa Rica from the ramshackle Bocas del Toro airport, we were shuffled towards the immigrations office, and there was Moses!  Less than excited to see us having lost face in the previous exchange, but we passed through without incident!

The flight to San Jose was a little scary for me as I don’t like small planes.  It didn’t help that Andy said the plane looked like a ride at Disneyland (perhaps “Lion King — The Ride” as it was decorated in a jungle mural), but we made it safely and saw some absolutely beautiful jungle terrain from the air.

Our arrival in Costa Rica was unfortunately not as smooth sailing!  We had an airport mix up with the shuttle company (international versus domestic airports) but we were on the road to Monteverde by 6:30 p.m. for a purportedly 3 hour long drive.  The driver, Rafael, brought his wife along for this gig, so we all stopped for dinner after being stuck in traffic for an hour.  Finally, we saw the turnoff for Monteverde which read 36 kilometers (about 22 miles) and we thought we were home free.  Unfortunately, that’s also where the worst dirt road you´ve ever seen in your whole life began.  We had stopped for some road trip beers earlier, and at this point, Andy and I renamed the road the “kidney buster”.

Behind schedule, we pulled into Monteverde at 11:30 p.m. and poor Rafael didn’t know where our hotel was located.  We drove and drove, asked directions from the few pedestrians out and about, and basically drove in circles as it’s not like there’s a 7-11 on every corner.  Finally, we find the hotel and pull up after midnight.  The lights were out and nobody was home.  Because we were in the mountains, the wind howled and the jungle mist was freezing!  We opened the front door to find no one, no key, no note, no nothing.  So, we sent Rafael and his wife home, and slept on the lobby’s couch!  The main lodge was totally spooky and cold (no insulation or heat), and we made jokes, (oftentimes only half-jokingly) about the Overlook Hotel in the Shining.  Yikes!

Luckily, the hotel took mercy on us after our terrible night (and it was their fault that they close at 9:00 and don’t make any allowances for no-show reservations, even those that are paid in advance).  The hotel is absolutely the remotest of the remote, and the views of the volcano were absolutely amazing.  Breakfast at the lodge was great, but we ate dinner there once which was a grievous error.  Andy ordered the steak with the “Secret Sauce”, and it was a secret that should be guarded from humanity at all costs.

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