Cloudforest: St. Elena & Monteverde

After a rocky ride into St. Elena, Jose (the owner of the lodge where we stayed) greeted us with smiles and invited us in for hot coffee and herbal tea made from a flower in his garden. Jose is a jack-of-all-trades, a genuine costariccense who exudes Pura Vida. While we sipped coffee and tea and tried to calm our motion-sick stomachs, he whipped out a town map and showed us all the restaurants and stores in town where we could get a 10% discount by mentioning his name. After going to one of his recommended restaurants that evening, we realized why: our waiter was the cousin of Jose's girlfriend. St. Elena is a small town, and everyone is connected to the tourist industry. I'm sure they do a lot of backscratching. Jose booked all our transportation between cities, got us the student discount at Selvatura Park, and booked a private tour at Valle Escondido (Hidden Valley Trail), a private park that normally only does night tours. His lodge is a collection of quaint rooms, nicely furnished with modern bathroom and rustic wooden chairs. He and his brother built, own, and run the lodge. Jose served us our pancakes in the morning (breakfast included with the room) and called taxis to take us on all our adventures. Un buen hombre.

The rest of the pictures pretty much explain themselves. Disfrutan, y recuerda siempre: Pura Vida en Costa Rica!