Montezuma – part 3
Day 3 started out with a healthy breakfast
I had been speaking on and off with our neighbor in the hotel, (the one who had recommended the first restaurant), she currently lives in the US, but originally comes from Kyrgyzstan. Another incredibly inspiring, lovely person. She told me about her travels through Kyrgyzstan , it sounds so totally amazing, not least because of the yurts! Rich and I love yurts!!!!!!! Previously Kyrgyzstan had not been on my radar, but now it certainly is! For those of you unfamiliar like me, check this out:
We tried to make it to the private school in Montezuma, Futuro Verde, but it seemed luck was not on our side time wise. The taxi and bus did not turn up when expected, and when we tried to hire an ATV, they were not available either. We had met the Principal briefly in Monteverde and wanted to check the school out, but was not meant to be this visit.
The reason we were time pushed, was Luca and I had a horse riding tour booked!!!!!! Luca was so excited! He has only ever been led around a small area at petting zoo type places, so had pretty much zero experience, and had never ridden by himself, ever! I was bit worried that his idea of riding and reality may clash.
Then I saw the horses! These were not your usual plodders that a lot of tour company’s have, they had minds of their own and had spirit! I kept my thoughts to myself as Luca got into the saddle….
and headed off
on the long beaches he trotted and then galloped!!!!! Turns out he is a natural! He loved it! This was his face after the gallop..
I need not have worried.
We passed this howler monkey as we rode…
We were heading to a waterfall where the group all went swimming. They were all young and so great with Luca, especially 2 Aussie sisters. Luca saw them get in so he did too! They looked after him so well, another pair of inspiring young women!
Our guide was great with Luca too! I totally recommend the company.
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x8f9f651cd4a20c25:0x6c1c02e86b7aa7ec!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNalh80agsBHPMuiRrkXGg3LVCqhuSyxgKusJDY%3Dw213-h160-k-no!5scabo+blanco+travelers+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNalh80agsBHPMuiRrkXGg3LVCqhuSyxgKusJDY&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDn8e2ib7cAhXuTN8KHWcFDt8QoiowD3oECAsQCQ
Luca hit the beach after the waterfall, the rainbow in the background was perfectly fitting!
Then it was time to mount up and head back. The ride took longer than expected, 4 and 1/2 hours in total, it was 6:30pm when we got back! Poor Rich was so worried he had started walking to find us by following the hoof marks. He said he had visions of it all being a huge disaster, and was so relieved when Luca waved cheerily from the back of his horse as he trotted towards him, and said, THIS, is why I want a horse! 🙂
After heading home for a swim, we went out for supper to another amazing place set right on the shore. This one had a Mediterranean flavor to it and all the food we had was delicious yet again!
We rolled home and into bed as had to be back at the same tour company site by 9am, for a snorkeling tour out to Tortuga Island.
The next morning we struggled out of bed and headed off to the Montezuma Bakery for breakfast…
such a great place and we wished we could stay longer but had to catch the boat. This little fellow came and ate our left overs as soon as we got up 🙂
We caught the boat with the same 2 Aussie girls from the riding, and 10 others and headed out. It was a stunning day, very hot. Luca has never really snorkeled properly and certainly not in the middle of the ocean with no bottom in sight. We wondered how he would cope.
We passed two green sea turtles, they were HUGE, and in the middle of mating. Mating takes 6 months, they are stuck together like that for 6 whole months!
We got to Tortuga Island and dropped off our cook for him to start preparing our lunch. How amazing is this island?!!!!!
We headed back out to the snorkeling area and in we went. Luca jumped on in like he has been doing it forever…
again we need not have worried, he had a blast!!!!!! Said it was on par with horse riding, high praise indeed 🙂 The fish were amazing, so colorful and plentiful!!!!!
After the snorkeling, it was back to the island to hang out and eat for a couple of hours. I chatted more with the Aussie sisters and once again felt great hope, both will really make a difference in peoples lives, within their chosen field’s, given the passion they bring to it!
We reluctantly packed up and headed home all feeling more than a little sun kissed,the day had only gotten hotter.
I feel I should mention that there is a lot of competition between companies doing the tours and some really bad mouth the others. We were told by one alarmed tourist when he knew we had booked with Cabo, that he was told how unsafe they were, and that the hotels all avoided them. Not true at all, we found them great, totally safe. I was speaking to a local Tico guy who said the bad mouthing is a big problem. Such a shame really as it puts tourists off booking anyone, the tourist and his family that told us about Cabo, ended up doing nothing with any of them because he was so concerned.
As we cooled off after snorkeling, in our pool at the hotel, we met a Belgium/Tico couple with their kids, and a Belgium friend of theirs, who lives in San Jose and has done for 10 years. The couple were leaving the next day for Belgium. The kids are nearing school age, and they feel they want to try the education system in Belgium for them. They all have mixed feelings about this move, and we had a really interesting conversation about the pros and cons. For us it was good to hear their reasons for leaving, and to hear about life in San Jose, compared to somewhere like Montezuma. As I said to them, nothing is forever and they are free to change their mind at any time if they feel it is not working. I feel like we will be in this situation in a year, trying to decide what is best…..
We had met a local restaurant owner at our pool a couple of days ago . Originally from Israel, she has lived and run her restaurant in Montezuma for 10 years
we went there on our last evening. They do sushi and middle eastern food, again an incredible meal, and wonderful atmosphere. Best sushi I have eaten in many many years. She brought over an incredible dessert for us free of charge as a goodbye, such a lovely person.
We all felt a bit sad as we wandered home knowing we were leaving at 6am the next morning but happy too, as had had such an amazing time!
We caught the bus the next morning right through to the ferry, with a perfect connection. The ferry is incredibly reasonable, 810 colones for us each and 485 colones for Luca.
Us on the ferry
Getting off in Punterenas…
We got to Puntarenas knowing we would have a wait to catch the bus to Monteverede so walked to the station this time. We had heard of a place called Pequeno Mundo, (Small World), that sold all sorts of things very reasonably. We had been unable to find things like a baking dish, a bread pan, etc in Monteverde and thought this would be a good place to try. Once we confirmed when the bus left, we went outside to see what price we could get taxi wise. In the middle of bargaining, guess who turns up, the same interpreter as our first Puntarenas taxi experience! He recognized us immediately and gave me a huge hug! He then launched into the bargaining process! Long story short, we got a taxi to take us, wait for us at Pequeno Mundo, then drop us off at a closer bus stop to save on cost. We flew around that place, which reminded us of a small Costco! Got everything we wanted and headed off to the bus stop. This was the only hiccup really, as turned out, it was a 2 hour wait and the bus stop was literally on the side of the road with nothing else around. Oh well, Luca is great with coming up with games to play, so kept us amused 🙂
We arrived in Monteverde at 4:30pm and walked home. It felt good to be in cooler weather, the air feels so fresh here, and Pica greeted us warmly. She had been looked after so well by Greyvin, (our landlords nephew who had house sat for us), but had obviously missed us and we had missed her, despite having a wonderful time 🙂