Puntarenas Getting up early again, since we were leaving Quepos today to head for Monteverde. After loading the bus with our luggage, we left at 7:30. Again the drive the bumpy road along side the palmfields. After some emergencie stops from our busdriver to show us some rare birds sitting alongside the road, we made a long stop in Puntarenas. Today was a national holiday in Central America. They celebrated the independency from the Spaniards. In every village along our trip today we saw children dressed up in special uniforms. In Puntarenas, a village with 100.000 inhabitants, we stopped to have a look at this parade. With music ahead the dancing group, it was a very colorfull and entertaining happening. Every school or organisation had it's own parade team, complete with banners and special uniforms. After the parade, we drove a bit around the city, showing the harbor (untill 1980 this was the most important Pacific-coast-harbor from Costa Rica. In the past, coffee from the inland was brought here, and being shipped to countries in Europe. Along side the coast in Puntarenas, you'll find a lot of local tico's here. Many Costa Rican family spend there vacations here. The soda's longside the boulevards are the place to find them. You'll will not find many tourists here. Monteverde After having lunch in a restaurant along side the Interamericana, we headed for Monteverde. Monteverde (which means green hill) is only reachable through a 32 km bumpy road through the hills. This trip took us allmost 2 hours with our bus. Monteverde is a special place. Some Quakers from Alabama were jailed in 1949 for refusing to register for the draft in the USA. After their release from jail, they began to search for a place to settle where they could live peacefully. After searching for land in Canada, Mexico and Central America, they decided on Costa Rica. It's peacefull policies and lack of an army matched their philosophies. A group of 44 settlers arrived in 1951 and bought land in the Monteverde area. Here they began dairy farming and cheese production. There products our now sold all over Costa Rica. Many roadsigns are in both spanish and englis. You'll see some blondehaired local walking around here. All these things gives Monteverde a special atmosphere. Together with the near by cloudforrest, the butterfly garden, the art galleries and Skywalk and Canopy tours in the forrest, it's a nice place to spend some day's. In Monteverde we stayed at Hotel El Bosque, a nice sixties bungalow style hotel in the middle of nowhere. After arrival, we immediately heade for our sunset cloudforrest tour. A walk through the dark woods with only a flash light (and rain protection gear, because the water was pouring out of the sky). This was very special... The rain and the fog in the dark, the noises of animals were beautiful. We saw some two toed sloths and a tarantula spider. After the hike through the rain, we had a great dinner at the restaurant near our hotel. The vegetarian pizza's they serve are really great. A quite sleep in our hotel was next.