Santa Elena

Five thirty came very early as my alarm yanked us from our sleep. In quiet and zombie-like state, we brushed our teeth, gathered our things, and dumped our towel and sheets into the laundry basket downstairs. After paying for our two night stay and a drink at the hostel ($22), we headed out to the street to pile into a small red taxi taking us to the bus station at 6am. Four girls crammed in the back of a Chevy Aveo sized Toyota was interesting, but tolerable for the five minute and 80 cent taxi ride.

After rushing out of the hostel so fast, our morning hunger finally hit us, so we ran into the little corner store by the bus station to grab a quick snack for breakfast. The girls conversed with the woman behind the pastry filled glass counter while I settled on an apple and a Special K bar. The lady at the restaurant filled my water bottle for me, which reminds me...we can drink the water in Costa Rica! This is so nice because bottled water is not cheap and many of you know how I love my water. Anyway, we head back across the street to the bus station where a man is loading backpacks into the bottom compartment of the bus. He was tagging each bag with a legit baggage tag and handing us a claim receipt to use after our ride. This is something I'm still getting used to as a traveler is the separating from my bag. It's kind of a vulnerable feeling at times, only because I am living out of that bag for the next six weeks. I hand it off like a mother dropping their kid off at school, like "be good to my baby". Haha. We do however, where our moneybelts (like a super flat, flesh toned fanny pack that straps around your waist and hides under your pant waist and shirt) with our important stuff in them. Passport, credit cards, money, etc.

We board the bus, and Niki invites me up to the seat next to her because her window is a lot more open and not interrupted by the emergency exit like Jil and I's window was. A policeman comes aboard for a minute and asks around who speaks English. My Spanish speaking friends say something about the blonde girls not knowing Español, because I heard 'rubia' which I know means blonde. The police officer looks at us and smiles. It's crazy how alien you feel being a blonde, non-Spanish speaking traveler in this country. Thank God I'm sitting next to my cousin who doubles as my own personal translator and Spanish guide :) The policeman continues a small announcement to the bus and Niki sums it up by saying, don't leave your personal belongings unattended at rest stops and don't trust the cute boys!

We begin our journey through San Jose, out to the interstate and away we go. I knew I should probably get some sleep on the bus, but I couldn't help but stare out the window at the different life flying by outside my window. People walking to work, dogs everywhere, billboards that look cheesy and totally nineties, and vegetation so different than ours. Funny how we drive to work everyday and don't really pay much attention to the cattails and trees we pass, but here, even the roadside plants interest me. I get small peeks of the mountains in the distance that surround the city, attempting to snap moving photos but was never, real successful. Instead I relaxed, and assured myself that there will probably be more opportunities for photos later. As we reach the "highway" I begin to notice that not much of the scenery is changing so I would try to catch some shut eye before the view changes. I feel myself doze in and out despite the bumpy and jolty ride. At each roadside bus stop, I peek through sleepy eyes at people coming aboard, all locals, and through heavy blinks, I'm out again. I wake up at our rest area where I realize the bus has gotten much hotter! Sleeping was not an option anymore and that was a good thing because we had reached some beautiful scenery. As the bus bumped and clattered and zig zagged around these bumpy mountain range roads, my eyes were soon opened to, hands down, the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. I always thought northern Michigan was hilly and beautiful, and the mountains in Tennessee, were pretty but HO-LY mountains!

For a good hour, we got to ride the side of these mountains, and at that time, I was thankful for my aisle seat because I could see, but didn't have to see the scary, deadly steep cliff edge just off the side of the road. In the past, I would view that as absolutely frightening. This huge greyhound type bus winding around the loose gravel roads, playing chicken with the oncoming vehicles, was definitely unsettling, but you just have to have the right mindset...and I did! In a situation like that, you can either worry, or relax, none of which will change the outcome. I was too busy with my eyes staring out the window repeating, "Oh my God!" and just marveling how beautiful it is.

Niki would just look at me like, "So? What do you think?" Expecting her to laugh at me, I told her that it was taking everything in me to fight back tears. To my surprise though, she told me she totally knows that feeling, and she's right. That feeling of overwhelming joy is so overtaking that I cannot even explain. But this feeling wasn't just the mountains, the mountains were just the point of realization for me. This trip means so so so much more to me than just a vacation. I have had a very stressful, and many times hurtful, past two years and my goal since the summer has been to take care of me. Deciding to go through with this trip was one thing, but the support and enthusiasm I received from the people I love, was just incredibly reassuring that this is what I need. Wind under my wings and an adventure like this just shows me how awesome it is to live life and makes me so proud of myself,. It may sound kind of philosophical but Niki hit the nail on the head when she explained it to me. We've seen our parents cry at graduation because they are proud of our accomplishments, or we have cried when we see something happy, but to get choked up over YOU is pretty awesome and rewarding. Not too many people can say they've felt that way about themselves.

All this deep and emotional talk, had distracted us and we had arrived to Santa Elena, a small mountain town outside of Monteverde. Getting off the bus, a young man invited us to check out the hostel he works for. A tour from a very peppy and down to Earth guy, and the cheap price of $7 a night, helped us decide to stay here. We drop our stuff off in a four bunk room, and Jil elects to take the single twin room. Ro, the main man at the hostel happily provides us with about fifteen intense minutes of information on what to do and see in Santa Elena and the surrounding area, all while covering his map with purple highlighter. We decided to book a trip to go walk across treetop hanging bridges.

We had enough time before our excursion to visit the local bank, and supermarket for some groceries at the hostel for lunch and dinner. At 2pm, a van pulled up an took us to our destination about 25 minutes away. Check in was pretty basic and we started down the nature trails into the forest. This was amazing! With my jaw dropped, I look around in every direction of the humid, shady, moss covered forest. Tarzan limbs hang from almost every tree ...also covered in moss. The sun fights to make its way through the thick canopy and is successful at times, turning the greenery around us lime green. Us girls and our cameras were in heaven as we snapped pics of every angle. Our walk led us to about five or so different bridges. They were long green suspension bridges spanning crazy distances across the jungle. Again though, the view of the green forest with more blue-ish green and foggy mountains in the background was absolutely breathtaking along with the sound of a stream below.

Close to two hours later, we finished our hike in the hummingbird garden which was also very cool. Hundreds of hummingbirds buzzed by us to feed on the dozen of hanging feeders. We were able to stand within a foot of the feeders and get video and pictures of iridescent green and blue hummingbirds.

A twenty-five minute van ride brought us back to our hostel so we could start dinner. Walking upstairs, you could smell multiple groups making their dinner for the night. It was cool seeing what everyone was making and where they were from. We talked with a group of girls from Australia who are working their way south through Central America as well as another group of guys and girls from Ohio. I personally talked the most with two girls from Oregon, I believe, who have been backpacking for four months and are now hoping to settle somewhere in Central America because their backpacking experience has been so awesome.

Dinner was bowtie pasta and spaghetti sauce with a cold salad made of diced avocado, onion, tomatoes and cucumber. Jil and I made a run to the supermarket one more time to buy some snacks for a hike in the morning and then the rest of my night consisted of Skyping and working on my blog post. I started to doze off around ten to the sound of camaraderie and a ukulele playing outside our door. I patted my chunky pillow that felt as if it were filled with hundreds of cotton balls, to flatten it, and that was the last I remember.


Photos:
1) From bus window, the shot that prompted the whole talk of emotion.
2) Another pic from bus ride
3) Jungle
4) View from bridge
5) Sam, Jil, Niki on jungle walk
6) Hummingbird garden