[Costa Rica Honeymoon] [Day 1] Interbus San Jose --> Monteverde

The shuttle that picked us up was from Interbus.  We opted for the cheaper shared shuttle.  There was only one other tourist on the shuttle with us that day.  He is a backpacker from Australia.  Interesting guy.  We had fun chatting with him on the 3+ hour ride from San Jose to Monteverde.



The first hour of the ride was on paved roads.  We stopped by a little rest stop.  I thought the shuttle driver stopped for us to use the restroom.  But turned out that it was time for him to eat.




One thing I noticed about Costa Ricans was that when it's time to eat/rest/take a break, they will just stop what they are doing and enjoy that moment.  I like that lifestyle.



I walked around the little souvenir shop.  There were lots of bakery items for sale.  I had no idea what they were.  I love CR's food.  But their pastries didn't look too appealing to me.



Time to get on the road again.  We drove by the Pacific Ocean.



A lot of families hanging out and relaxing at the beach.  There were also lots of vendors with small truck selling food and drinks.



Costa Rica is a very green country.  Lots of beautiful giant trees like this everywhere.



As we were driving up the mountain road, we saw two guys standing on the side of the road looking up at the tree.  Our driver pulled over and asked them what they were looking at.  Monkeys!  We saw a group of howler monkeys going across the trees.  Look carefully.  Can you spot the monkeys?



We saw cattle roaming around the mountain side everywhere.  The cattle in Costa Rica look different.  They are all very lean, and they are eating grass like they were supposed to!



That was the beach we passed by earlier.  Now we are on top of the mountain looking at the same Pacific Ocean.



The rest of the ride was on very bumpy pebble/muddy roads.  The roads were narrow with no defined lane.  There were falling rocks and trees in the middle of the road that we had to go around it.  There were no rail on the side of the windy mountain road.  And our crazy driver was going fast, like really fast.  Not to mentioned he wasn't wearing his seat belt, also he was on his cell phone half of the time.  Yeah, we were scared....  But I have to say, he was a really skilled driver.



Even though the car ride was "thrilling", we still tried to enjoy the breathtaking view.  Everything is so beautiful there.



Finally we were in Monteverde. This place is also known as Cloud Forest. It seemed foggy, but it was all cloud.

I want to mention some funny things I remember from our ride. The guy from Australia started telling us how a few people he knew all got robbed in Costa Rica. He told us detail stories of how each person was robbed. He said he also read in tour guide books that there are a lot of robbery in Costa Rica. Then he asked our shuttle driver, "Have you ever been robbed before? Like your whole shuttle gets robbed? You know, like people with guns and weapons stopping the shuttle and rob all the tourists on the shuttle. Has that ever happen to you before?" The shuttle driver had this look on his face like "what the hell are you talking about?" and just answered "uh... no." Dr. P and I just thought that was really funny. You have to see the look on their faces though. The Australian guy seemed very serious and concerned. The driver probably thought he was crazy. haha....

When we told the shuttle driver which hotel to take us to, he said "oh that's a really nice hotel." Dr. P told him, "Yeah, we are here for our honeymoon." His answer was "Congratulation! I just got a divorced 3 weeks ago. My wife left. Now I am with my boy alone. He is six. So congratulation to me, too!" Dr. P and I just didn't know what to answer to that. Uh... I guess I can say he's a funny guy? haha....

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