Day 5

Today was a travel day. After breakfast, we packed our suitcases and took all our belongings on the van as we drove from Alajuela northwest to Monteverde. Along the way, we stopped in the small town of Grecia. Here's Grecia's cathedral.

And its main plaza.

From there, we continued to the artisan village of Sarchí. Decorated ox carts have traditionally been used on farms here to collect coffee beans, fire wood, fruit, etc out in the fields. The center of ox cart production in Costa Rica is in Sarchí.

We toured a workshop that makes traditional ox carts, then had lunch at the same location.

From there, we continued northwest to our destination, Monteverde. But along the way, we saw some howler monkeys in the trees along the side of the road. Pablo, our driver, pulled over so we could take some photos. Just like we sometimes see deer along the side of the road in Illinois, howler monkeys can be found in the wild in Costa Rica.

Can you see the monkey up the tree?

Monteverde is up in the cloud forest, which our guide Cristián explained to us well. There are clouds here that remain at 1.500 meters above sea level. Any forest that's above this line is considered to be in the cloud forest, which is where we are now.

The drive up here was adventurous - we took a narrow, winding road with beautiful views of mountains and valleys on both sides.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we checked in to our rooms, which are wonderful. All our rooms face west, and we arrived just in time to watch the sun set over the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

From there, dinner together out at a restaurant, then we returned home for the night.

Tomorrow is an adventure day - ziplining in the morning, then a visit to a nature reserve to see more wildlife in the afternoon.

¡Pura vida!