Villa Blanca to MonteVerde Cloud Forest Lodge

Google said our drive today would take a bit over three hours but that was grossly wrong. I mentioned yesterday that there are lots of land slides and road problems because of the massive amount of wind and rain that Costa Rica got from Huricame Nate. We really experienced that today.

Twice we had to backtrack and take massive detours because of road closures. And there were no signs saying that the road was closed thirty miles ahead. Once after following a road for about thirty miles and passing some horrible flood damage we came to a bridge that had been washed away. Although the storm was less than a week ago they had almost completed a new pedestrian suspension bridge across the river. We of course had to turn around and backtrack.

There were also multiple times we had to stop and wait while road crews worked on clearing slides and then would let a few cars through. In all the drive took us eight hours and the last several miles were on muddy dirt roads. We arrived in the dark.

Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Lodge

Today was a first! In my more than sixty five years of life I have never milked a cow. But today I did! Villa Blanca has a lecharia and at 8:30 every morning you can help milk the cows.

We went for a couple of short hikes today.

We saw lots of interesting and beautiful plants and flowers.

Just before we got to Costa Rica they had two days of hurricane winds and rain from Nate. As we walked through the cloud forest there trees, branches and leaves down everywhere.

San Jose to Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Lodge

About ten this morning we walked the mile or so to the rental car place, picked up our rental car and then drove back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. There must have been a breast cancer run here this morning because we saw a ton of people in pink.

We drove about seventy miles northwest from San Jose to Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Lodge where we will be staying the next two nights. The roads were very good until we turned off to the lodge. Then we had ten kilometers of road that was a bit rough.

The lodge is amazing. We were greeted by the very friendly staff who gave us juice to drink, gave us warm aromatherapy towels and helped us with our luggage. We have our own casita with a fireplace. Soon after we arrived it started to rain and we sat on our porch enjoying the thunder and rain and reading.

For dinner we started with carrot soup and a Greek salad. For the main course I had chicken and Duke had steak.

Because Duke had already filled out the hotels.com check in survey they gave us complimentary desert, chocolate torte with ice cream for me and tres leches cake for Duke.

The main lodge is where the dining room is. It also has a pool table. So after dinner I let Duke conquer me at a game of pool.

Now we are back in the room sitting by the fire reading.

San Jose

It was nice to wake up to blue skies this morning for the first time in a while. We went to the pretty old post office and bought stamps.

We also did laundry and bought a Costa Rica road map since we will be picking up a rental car tomorrow.

And Duke bought tickets to see a flamenco company perform at the National Theater.

The theater is 120 years old and we were sitting at the very top. It was great.

Taboga, Panama to San Jose, Costa Rica

The first thing we heard today was that there might not be any ferries back to Panama City today either. While Duke was on the phone trying to reschedule our flight we finally heard that there would be one ferry at eleven. We waited on the dock and finally the ferry arrived.

It was a bit disconcerting when they handed out life jackets!

Luckily the ferry ride was quite smooth. Very strange that they were so concerned!

At the dock in Panama City we got a ride to the airport and had an uneventful flight to San Jose. We are staying in the center of town. For dinner we ate at an Argentine restaurant and had great steak.