Jeep Boat Jeep ?

I’m in a very basic and cheap hostel in Santa Elena. I took the so called a Jeep Boat Jeep Transport from La Fortuna to Santa Elena-Monteverde. It was great to see Lago Arenal on the 45 minute crossing. Lake Arenal is a reservoir and generates much of Costa Ruca’s electricity. The boat ride included a bit of history of the 1968 eruption of Arenal Volcano 🌋 The boat had a captain and 2 deck hands and it was one of the deck hands who pointed certain things out during the crossing. One was as we were above the location of the town of Arenal which was abandoned after the eruption. It’s predocesor, Nuevo Arenal, was visible in the distance on the shores of the artificial lake. He mentioned an annual fishing tournament on the lake for Rainbow Bass. He pointed out a house and vast amount of land on the lake owned by a wealthy Nicaraguan. There were a lot of birds (egrets and anhingas mostly) which he pointed out. He mentioned a certain area on the lake that seems to attract the most caimans.. related to alligators.

This is difinately the way to go to get from La Fortuna to Monteverde but the ‘Jeep’ aspect is only marketing to make it seem like more of an adventure. There is a lot of ‘Adventure’ for sale in Costa Rica. I was picked up at Hotel La Choza Inn in a mini bus.. we drove on the paved main road, including over the dam, to a parking lot with restrooms. Several tour boats waited. We and out luggage got on the boat and enjoyed quite a nice ride. It was mostly cloudy and sprinkled briefly but sunshine increased throughout the day. On the other end it was much more remote. Just a narrow gravel road led to the place the boats would nose up to where a set of steps had been set. Here we got in our assigned tourist vans depending on the location of our lodgings. The road was mountainess, gravel and fairly rough in places. The vans were not 4 wheel drive nor did they have increased clearance. It was quite scenic with 2 stops. Once for photos and once for photos and restrooms. There is much grazing and agriculture and areas with preserved cloud forest stand out strikingly.

I was dropped at my hostel about noon. Out and about looking for lunch I noticed prices were a bit higher in general than La Fortuna. Always the frugal traveler, I hoped to find a place like Soda La Casa de el Hormiga (House of the Ant) did not see a single ant. This restaurant in La Fortuna was quite a stand out and a third to a half the price of any other restaurant I tried or glanced at the menu. The 2 German sisters told me about it. Yesterday, in Santa Elena, I decided to eat at a chicken rotisserie where all customers were ticas. I got a Empanada De Pollo Con Ensalada that was only 1500 colones ($2.50) but then added a bottle of jugo de naranja not priced on the menu and it ended up being 1,000 colones . I later stopped for an Americano and it was 1,400 colones. My favorite restaurant in La Fortuna sold good coffee for 500 c. Large natural fruit beverages were also 500 c yet coke and other bottled drinks were 1,000 c. Beer tends to be $3 to $4 usd for the local big brewers but Costa Rican craft beers were $6 or $8 depending on size. Fortunately drinking beer is something I only do socially and even then rarely. Most menus I looked at had entrees ranging from 3,500 to 9,000 colones. I noticed the coffee shop I had the 1,400 Americano at had a ham and chees sancwhich on the board fir only 1,500 c so I’ll likely try there today. Besos Espresso.. the name.

I had planned to take the $2 shuttle to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve this morning right after breakfast but decided to hope it’s less windy tomorrow. There is another shuttle at 1:20 but it’s still quite windy. I felt it might be hard to spot any birds with so much noise and movement in the trees.

From the Bus Boat Van transport yesterday ...