Selvatura Park
We slept in a little on our day to visit Selvatura Park. A little too much. After we got a snack for breakfast, and got around, we were late. I don’t mind being late on vacation, but I didn’t want to get turned away. Little did I know that the park would not turn us away even for being late, the timelines were very flexible.
Either way, we loaded up in our little SUV and boogied up the mountain to Selvatura Park. Halfway up it started to rain on us. The roads were very intense, some of the worst we had experienced. I was not having it since we were late, I put that SUV to the test. We knew these roads were rough.. but boy, something just didn’t seem right.
When we pulled into the parking lot, and were exiting the vehicle, a Scottish tourist walking by made a comment about our SUV while pointing to the back. Oh boy. I had driven for who knows how long on a flat and totally shredded the passenger rear tire!
I know.. I know… How did I not notice driving on this? Yall…. the roads were that bad. Thankfully, we had a spare tire, but I wasn’t about to deal with it right now… we were late! We made our way over to the park entrance, and got our tickets to go to the bridges. Selvatura Park is a little on the pricey side, also, they have ponchos for sale that are expensive.
Travel tip: Always bring your own poncho when traversing the rain forest!
Selvatura Park offers ziplining, nature & animal tours, hotels–all on the edge of the Monteverde Forest Reserve. It truly is a stunning sight. We got our stuff together, and prepared for the hike in. The path we chose was a 2 mile round trip hike. It was rainy the whole way, but we didn’t mind. All those plants need that water to stay green.
It was so beautiful in the mountains. I didn’t want to leave! Billy was not so enthusiastic. He was trying to rush ahead. We had to tell him to slow down and enjoy it. I don’t think he liked the rain. Even though many of the other tourists were heading back to the park entrance, the rain was not bad at all. Their loss!
Me and my sweetie on the trail.
About three quarters of the way through, on one of the larger suspension bridges, we spotted a monkey hanging out in a tree. He was being pelted by the rain, but it didn’t seem to bother him any. I’m sure he was used to it.
Monkey seen from a suspension bridge in Selvatura Park.
My little booger as seen from a suspension bridge. One of the few shots I got of him not making a funny face. He did have a good time despite him being a goofball.
On the way out, there was a very cool little art studio near the exit. We stopped in and checked out the art, and ended up buying a few pieces. We did not take any pictures here out of respect of the artists. The artists were very nice and accommodating. They had the most spoiled cat there named Maria Juana, Mary Jane. After building some rapport with them I asked where the nearest tire shop was in town. Our art guide let us know where the only tire shop in Monteverde was.
We left our new art friends and made our way back to the parking lot where I was dreading changing this tire in the rain. The jack that came with the SUV did not go high enough to touch the frame, so I was going to have to shore it up and make it taller with… something. Thankfully, the teenaged parking lot watchman helped us out and brought me a couple of bricks that were laying around. I propped the jack up, and got the spare changed in about 10 minutes.
He earned a big tip that day, and we headed to the tire shop. The tire shop in Monteverde is one of the only mechanicos in town. Due to the roads, he has plenty of customers. The garage itself was an open air pole barn, and he did not speak any English. We used our google translate to ask about a llantra usada, used tire for our spare. Thankfully, his son spoke some English. About $17 US dollars later, we had a heavily used tire on our spare rim. I did not want to chance driving around with no spare, and even though this tire was extremely bald, it at least would give us a chance to make it if we had another flat.
Billy got ate up by a mosquito, or some other bug the night before, and the bites had made his finger swell up. We headed home, gave him some Benadryl, and let him sleep for a while. These things happen when you live in the rain forest. This was our last evening in Monteverde, and we really enjoyed our time. I could have stayed here indefinitely. That night for dinner, we went back to Taco Taco. It was so good the first time, we couldn’t resist.
The food was yummy, and they had live music. After getting our bellies full, it was easy to go back home and crash for the night. We would need our rest for the following day. Our program for tomorrow was a roughly five hour drive along the Pacific coast to Quepos & Manuel Antonio!
