Getting to Monteverde Cloud forest..

 To go by road from La Fortuna to the Monteverde Cloud Reserve  is difficult. and takes a long time. The roads in this area are in a very bad condition and very windy.

However one can do a taxi-boat-taxi trip......across the Arenal lake.....pick up and drop off to the reserved hotels! Amazing views en route!

...all very well organized.......

Arriving at the hotel El Establo in Monteverde I was a little taken aback. I had also chosen this hotel because it was on the GAdventure list. It turned out to be many, many large buildings on a steep hillside....hotel shuttles needed to go anywhere on the property. I had a room in the building closest to reception......90 steps down and 90 steps up exteriorly for breakfast! Another 20 inside!

I signed up for a coffee tour at Don Juan.... it was actually very informative......

........with some nice chocolates to finish.....

One of the reasons this area is on everybody's list of places to visit in Costa Rica is to tour the Monteverde Cloud Reserve.......

Beautiful birds.... high up in the trees so difficult to see!

A quetzal.....

There was obviously also a lot of hidden  wildlife!

I almost signed up for the canopy tour until I realized it was zip lining!!

But I did go to the Selvatura park to the sloth sanctuary.......

Very cute!!

Arenal volcano area.

 La Fortuna is where one heads to for amazing views of the Arenal volcano. 

It is easy to get local transport in Costa Rica... the hotel in La Fortuna arranged a hotel pick up for me from San Jose...... there were just 4 of us in the minibus.

The volcano towers over the town.....this photo from my bedroom in the morning!

This area has many luxury resorts but I chose a simple hotel within the town, the Monte Real. I had been very happy with the chosen hotels in Bolivia on my National Geographic/GAdventures tour and they used this hotel. It had a pool! Albeit small! But it also had a stream running behind the restaurant area where supposedly one could see sloths hanging out! I didn't!

Also I did not want to be restricted to a resort area.

A hike around the area was amazing and varied!

First I took a lava walk up the volcano......

The lava path was not easy!

Next stop was a 500 step hike down to  take a dip in the Arenal waterfall. As we had to sign a liability release before going down the steps I decided a glass of wine in the cafe with a view suited me better!

From here we went to the Mistico Hanging Bridges park......

One takes a long hike up to get to the top hanging bridge......then a slow hike down! We were warned that vipers were known to hang out at one of the bridges! I was using the handrail on the way up and was a little taken aback to almost touch this snake! I grew up in Ireland... we have a snake phobia!!

The view from the top bridge was amazing.....

......looking back up at it from the next one down..........

The bridges themselves shook a lot while traversing them! And there were 6 in total to traverse!

The view from the bottom was magnificent and welcome!

Moving on......... to Costa Rica....

There are very few flights in or out of La Paz..... the airport has a very short runway, is surrounded by a city of a million people and they have objected to the airport being moved further away! So I took a flight to Bogota and had to stay overnight there....and then took an early flight to San Jose, Costa Rica Rica.

My choice of hotel there was an old Victorian mansion.... the Grano de Oro. This is a charming place to stay and was an easy walk to the Gold and Jade museums and the central historic area.

The gold museum was amazing.......

It also had a lot of interesting pottery.......

Then on to the Jade museum......

Again a lot of pottery, some with jade inserts........

The downtown area did have a few other notable buildings......

the National Theatre..........

...with a beautiful interior........

........the Old Post Office building....

I also visited  the Museo de Arte Costarican......... which had been the original and only airport terminal in Costa Rica in the 30s........

...some interesting art...... indoors...

...and also outside.......

The building still retained it's original VIP lounge!