Costa Rica part II: Monteverde

I'm back! Costa Rica waits for no woman! On to the pictures:

MollyG and DanT on the boat ride across Lake Arinal on the way to Monteverde!

At our stop on our drive up the mountains to Monteverde we bumped into this cutie!

Coffee grown the bad way, clear-cutting the forest.

On our first evening in Monteverde we went for a walk in the neighborhood and found this guy. A Motmot!

Spicy potatoes over rice.

Half-eaten broccoli pasta with fry bread. Amazing.

Both from Dulce Marzo

Dulce Marzo was the best restaurant we ate at in Costa Rica. It is owned by an ex-pat woman named Lisa. Besides being very nice, she is also very accommodating and almost always has a few vegan items on her menu. The food was delicious and the conversation was interesting. Then, best part, we found out that her homemade dark chocolates are vegan (except the ones with caramel, duh). We bought 5 during our three day stay in Monteverde. The best were the straight-up chocolate with peanut butter swirled in. A-mazing. And the only time on the trip that we had dessert. if you ever find yourself in Monteverde, I highly recommend Dulce Marzo.

In the Monteverde cloud forest, tiny little orchids.

Through our guide carlos's telescope, a hummingbird mommy-to-be sitting on her eggs.

Agouti!

The underside of a Resplendent Quetzal. A really beautiful bird.

The underside of a Keel-Billed Toucan!! Seriously!

A Three-Wattled Bellbird. Its call sounds like a gong.

MollyG in a tree! This restaurant, The Treehouse, is built around a 200 year old fig tree!

Veggie stuffed avocado! SO good! Veganized simply by asking for no cheese.

The daily casado.

Our tour of a shade-grown, organic coffee plantation. The good stuff! I don't like coffee and even I liked this coffee!

Coffee in all its stages on the way to drinkable.

A Violet Saberwing. The biggest hummingbird in the world!

A female Purple-Throated Mountain Gem

A male Magnificent Hummingbird.

MollyG on a hanging bridge. Our nature walk at Selvatura had eight of these suckers.

That tree on the right of the bridge is Costa Rica's national tree, the tree of life (no idea what its official name is)

Really cool beetle on our nature walk.

Butterfly! We saw many, many different butterflies in Monteverde.

A Blue Jean poison dart frog. Not seen in the wild, seen in a reptile house, unfortunately. No wild poison dart frogs were seen.

Monteverde was so great that we want to go back. DanT and I want to retire there. Sunny in the morning, rain in the afternoon, in the evening cool enough for a sweater, all year! And everyone who lives there (that we spoke with) is super-nice and helpful. And the animals! Amazing.

I didn't want to leave!

Next, and lastly, comes part III! Stay tuned!