Looking west toward the Nicoya Peninsula
Apparently our shuttle showed up at 8 am this morning. The hotel keeper sent them away, but they wanted to come back at noon. Fortunately he convinced them that they had said 9:45 and that they had to come and get us at that time. They did show up at 9:30, but that was alright as we were ready to go.
We took one van to Nicoya where we waited for a few minutes and met another. Four people got out of that van, and we wondered how they were all going to fit in ours, but we were supposed to go in the other van. So after we’d switched vehicles we were on our way up into the mountains.
At first the road was a good paved road, but the last 35 km or so were extremely rough and rocky. We went very slowly but it was still a very rough ride. I do not know if you could travel on the road without a 4WD if it was wet.
When we got to our hostel, Cabinas El Pueblo, the clerk seemed surprised that we were staying here. It’s not high class accomodation, but seems clean and comfortable.
Purple orchid, the national flower of Costa Rica
We arranged all our tours for the next two days, plus our taxi and boat ride over to La Fortuna. After we’d done that we went to the Orchid Garden. They had a large number orchids, I believe the guide said 450 species, most of them endemic to Costa Rica. One of them is the smallest orchid in the world, probably not more than 0.5mm in diameter. It must be fertilized by a very tiny insect.
Capuchin (white faced) monkey
There were a bunch of Capuchin monkeys climbing in the trees of the orchid garden. The guide said that they are a nuisance because they tend to destroy the orchids, but she also liked them.
We ate at the restaurant right next to the orchid garden, Morphos, which had a butterfly motif, with large blue butterflies painted on the walls and butterfly light fixtures. We had a delicious meal of beef tenderloin in a stroganoff sauce.
When we got back to the hostel we made our lunch for tomorrow. A young couple from England were also there and we visited with them a bit. It is one of the nice features of communal kitchens that you get to know your fellow travellers. They have been travelling around South and Central America for four months. We had an interesting time telling them about winter in Canada, and showing them pictures of winter camping.