Our host at the apartment we have rented in Montezuma, Costa Rica, told us this afternoon that it will not rain until may. It is now about 9PM and the sound of the rain on the roof is almost loud enough to obscure the calls of the howler monkeys in the jungle outside. Here is a photo to show how close we are to the jungle:
It was a nice drive from Monteverde to Montezuma. It took about three hours and included a steep downhill drive from the mountains to the coast at Punta Arenas.
In Punta Arenas we caught a ferry to Paquera, crossing the Golfo de Nicoya to the southern end of the Nicoya peninsula. about half way across the gulf we passed the Isla San Lucas, which was abandoned as a penal colony in 1991. We wrote last week about an exhibit at the Museo de Arte Costaricanse in San Jose, that included images from an archeological study of the penal colony on San Lucas. Here is what we could see from the ferry:
The road from Paquera to Cóbana is paved, sometimes with new asphalt, and at times with edge to edge potholes. After leaving the port area we had to pass a number of large trucks that could barely make 10 kph up the hills. But after that we did quite well. At Cóbana we headed south along a gravel roads to our little apartment nears Montezuma. Dr. Google engaged in a bit of malpractice on this part of the trip, sending us down roads that had been washed out years ago, and circling around our final destination. A phone call to our host ended a significant frustration.
Montezuma is something of a hippie beach town, and is a twenty minute walk from out apartment, down a steep paved road. Our host advised us we should drive the first time we went to Montezuma to gauge whether we would feel comfortable walking up the hill. We, being good walkers, sneered at the notion and treked off blissfully unaware that he knew that of which he spoke. It wasn’t the steepest hill I’ve been on, nor the longest, but probably takes the prize for the longest steepest road I can recall.
Here are a few photos of what we saw in Montezuma:
After a grueling climb back up the hill, we sat on the patio, watching spider monkeys play in the woods and enjoying the sunset.
The rain is abating and the howler monkeys are howling again. It’s time for bed.
More later. Maybe I’ll get around to demonstrating why Greta Thornberg seems to hate ticos.
Shared Illusions 