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This day's activities consisted of a 4-5 hour drive from the Arenal Volcano to Monteverde. On the map it is a very short distance - 50 miles or so - but the roads do not travel straight to the town and are very rough.

This little animal is much like a racoon and is called a Coatimundis. While we were excited to see the Costa Rican wildlife we soon learned that they are like bears in Yellowstone.
Due to the number of tourists and the poor roads these little guys have a racket. They come on the road and beg for food - tourists like us - stop and give them food. Here they ask our car for more cookies - and of course we fed them.
A family simply feeds them outside their car. We were not that adventurous preferring the Coatimundis on outside and us on the inside of the car.
We stopped at the only attraction marked on the trip route - the Arenal Botanical Gardens. While a nice display (2,500 rare tropical species) it was not like many of the parks we would see in Monteverde. Additionally, it was raining so not the best time to visit a botanical garden. Beautiful plants and our first introduction to the jungle - as well as the first introduction to the climate on the Continental Divide.
About halfway around the expansive Lake Arenal we stopped at a restaurant which provided birds food in the hopes a Tucan would stop by. This is the view from the deck of the restaurant.
Well no Tucans but there were several other birds including this brightly colored woodpecker. Or at least I think it is a woodpecker.
The backend of the same bird - pretty colors.
Some little green birds were also feeding in the area - sorry this is the best shot I could get.
At the very northern tip of the Arenal Lake is a windmill farm. There are several (20-30) of these windmills attesting to the spot being the windiest place in Costa Rica. There are several hotels in the area providing lodging to the windsurfers.
With the moderate water temperature - 65-70 degrees - and the constant wind this is a great place for windsurfing. This picture was taken at Tilawa Viento Surf Center. Here Johnny wanted to get out in the surf - he is a big windsurfer. You can see the white caps on the lake - the wind was really blowing.
The road after Tilaran - only a few miles from the windsurfing spot - became very rough. While there was only 25 miles it would take us over 2 hours to cover the distance. The trip was broken by a stop in El Dos - named after a gold mining camp, the second in a string of camps. We had lunch in El Dos and it was a highlight of the trip.
As we traveled the rough dirt track we were moving from rain to mist to sun at each turn. This provided a rainbow at several turns - the number of rainbows became hard to count - they seemed to follow us.
We finally arrived in Monteverde - with a flat tire. After changing the tire and checking into the hotel we walked to a nearby restaurant. Here are Johnny Vega and Alejandra Bastida, Cal, little 4 year old girl Alejendrita, and Virginia Ann dining at Johnny's (no relation) Pizerra. The meal was great - very good pizza in the middle of Costa Rica.
Actually Monteverde was very busy with all the hotels full and a line at every restaurant. Most of the tourists were on eco vacations.

As we settled in this was the dusk over Monteverde.
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