Monteverde saga

The beginning of our last week in Monteverde has started. It's Monday morning, school has re-opened, and I am back here at the all-to-familiar Stella's Bakery using drinking a yummy mango juice con leche (with milk). I haven't written on the blog most of last week as we've not spent a lot of time at these WiFi spots. 

It has been very comfortable at Cindy's house while they were away in Panama during the week. We spent most of 5 days buried in books. I was enthralled by Sophies World, which is a fictional story of a 14 year old girl who does a strange correspondence course with a mysterious philosopher who teaches her the history of philosophy. I found the fictional part to be juvenile and annoying at the beginning (I think it was written for young adults), but I found the information about the evolution of human thought, God and society exceedingly relevant and interesting. The author introduces to Sophie all the prominent thinkers from Socrates to Sartre and I felt like I was taking Philosophy 101. A highly recommended read if you've ever pondered the big questions like "Who am I," and "What am I here for?" 5 stars.

I've found another book (not quite as thick as Sophie's World) now that's perked my curiosity. The Religious Philosophy of Quakerism. As I had mentioned before, Monteverde is founded by Quakers and in my ignorance when I first heard someone mention Quakers, I blurted out "Jews!" (out loud or silently in my head I don't recall). I thought I'd start educating myself. What's really interesting right now about this book is that Quakers are sharing some of their personal "mystical experiences" in contemplation. Some of these accounts more than vaguely resemble my own during my first 10-day Vipassana course. I sense truth in their fundamental views as they place less emphasis on the written Word as a source of all Truth, but more on "Christ within." Less on receiving truth from the written word, and more on the spirit that wrote the word. Quakers do not disqualify the teachings and experiences of Buddism and Hinduism either, and actually finds many similarities.

We had major drama getting hold of our LUMIX digital camera mom sent us from New Zealand. I had been tracking its movements via internet and saw that it arrived at DHL office in Heredia (4 hour drive away) safely over a week ago. From there it kept indicating that it was shipped out (presumably to Monteverde) but sent back to the office. We called up and found out that we had to pay customs for it, and when we paid it, they again said that we had to fax in proof of payment at the bank. Then when they finally sent it, we went to the postal service here in Santa Elena (3km run into town), I noticed a DHL packet sitting on the shelf behind the young local attendant with a bad attitude. He glanced at our reference number we were provided with by DHL and said that the packet would arrive til late tonight, and to come back tomorrow morning. Next day when Amber came back, it seemed like he gave us the packet that we had seen on the shelf the previous day. Anyway, it's so good to have a working digital camera now. Amber and I have agreed not to open it up when we're on the beach to play safe. We do NOT want to use the Costa Rican postal service again.

So armed with our brand new LUMIX TOUGH, we spent an afternoon at SABINE'S SMILING HORSES. I was very excited as I've never ridden a horse before. http://www.horseback-riding-tour.com/horse-stable.htm. Forget lessons! Sabine and the guide just plonked me onto a horse (Aska) and off we went. Amber's had time on a horse before so I was the beginner. Amber, the guide and I rode over the hillside on our horses for about and hour and a half to a "secret" natural slide/waterfalls. Check it out:

It was an incredible experience riding a horse. Aska from time to time would turn her head slowly from side to side to look at me. She had very long and curly eye lashes. I could feel it huffing and puffing as she carried me up the hill (I was very aware not to whip her with the stick to make her go faster here) and it was amazing to see a horse sweat. I felt compassion for all the horses in the horror stories I've heard which had been abused by being over-worked or malnourished in tourist rides similar to these. The Lonely Planet Costa Rica advises tourists to check for themselves that their horse are happy and healthy. Toward the end of our day trip and nearing Sabine's stables, I could feel a very tired Asha perk up! She could sense that she was just about home. She went straight for the water trough, I got off and thanked her. "Muchas gracias, caballo," her left eye looking at me as I stroked the side of her mane several times as a goodbye gesture.

The entire trip took us 4 hours, and we were sore from head to toe the next day (friday). I also had a cut to my right eye ball I must have acquired from dust during the trip which rendered me useless all day friday. It's better now, although vision is still a little blurry on that eye. At least it's not painful anymore and has stopped percolating.

Oh my God, Selvatura zip lines! See http://www.selvatura.com/canopy.html. We did this on saturday. It was raining pretty heavily, but the experience of flying through the rainforest when it was moist was utterly heavenly! 11 zip lines in all with various inclines and lengths. Selvatura is recommended over the other tour companies because these zip lines actually go through (as opposed to above) the canopies. One second I was standing on a platform perched on a tree, and the next second you're literally flying magically through the air in the middle of a dense cloud forest (they call it cloud forest because we're so high up the clouds actually are in the forest). I felt like a character straight out of Avatar! What a another truly celestial experience! We chose our attractions well. *By the way, Amber and I, as wedding gifts, got money gifts as well, and we decided that these be spent on specific events such as Selvatura. I'm don't recall who paid for Amber's zip line ticket, but I decided that Jeevan paid for mine. Thanks Jeevs! What an amazing contribution!

So, I'm crossing out 2 out of 3 activities that are on our "must-see/do list for Monteverde. Last one is Monteverde Biological Reserve, apparently the most famous cloud-forest in the world. That's on friday. 

Monteverde es muy bonita.