Time for us to continue on to the cloud forest!  We booked the van-boat-van transportation that would take us to Monteverde ($25/pp) it is the quickest option(2.5 hours).  You can drive but it is a lot longer to drive around the lake (4-5 hours). We were picked up at 8:40 or so from the hotel, and it was maybe a 15-20 minute drive on the windy road through the mountain to the dam were the ferry is.  There were people from all the other hotels meeting there as well.  They loaded our gear onto the ferry and gave us a sticker with a number of the van we will take once we reach the other side, (depends which hotel/hostel you are staying at).

It was a 40 minute ferry across the lake, there was a guide on the boat to give you a little history as well.  The scenery was beautiful and made for some great photos.

Once you reach the other side of the lake and find your van, it is an hour and fifteen minutes up and down and all around the mountains.  The tour guide said we would get a free hour massage on this part of the trip.  I sometimes get car-sick so I did take Gravol, although it wasn’t as bad as I thought;)

They drive halfway and stop at a small soda which has AMAZING VIEWS overlooking the valleys.  It was a 20 minute stop for bathrooms and snacks/coffee.  I got an iced coffee and took some photos.  Crazy views I tell ya!

It was another 40 minutes or so until we started dropping people off at their hostels.  We arrived probably around noon or so to Pension Santa Elena.  The town is very small, only 3 streets technically. We checked in, and dropped our stuff in our room.  We have a private room with our own bathroom ;). This is our first hostel experience as well, I have booked a few on this trip as it’s cheaper and a great way to meet other travellers.

We went up to find a bank machine, the first bank next door also didn’t work for me.  I realized it was the Banco Nationale and that was the same one in Puerto Viejo that didn’t like my Scotiabank cards.  So there was a shop up the road that actually had a Scotiabank machine inside, so we knew that would work for sure.  Sweet success on that!

We grabbed a 6 pack from the grocery store and decided we would try to work a bit since the wifi was much faster at the hostel than the hotel in La Fortuna.  We also booked another zip-line adventure for the next day, for 11:00am (approx 3 hrs, $50!)

Around 5:00 we walked up to The Treehouse restaurant for dinner; it is half open air as it is built around a giant tree, a few levels!  It was sort of raining so we sat inside but still had great views!  I ordered their “treehouse pizza”, which had ham, ground beef, peppers, onions and mushrooms on thin crust.  Jay ordered another Casado dish that came with different meats/sides.

Again, after full bellies we were ready for bed and it felt so late because it gets dark early and we were up earlier than usual, but it was maybe 6:45pm lol.  So we ended up coming back to the common area in the hostel for some coffee and a little more computer time, but we were yawning by 8pm; So off to bed we went. At least we don’t have to rush in the morning, as we aren’t getting picked up until 10:30am.

Sending sunshine back home;)  Here are a few of the furry friends around the hostel that I will leave you with:)