Got up and packed followed by fresh omelette for breakfast. Packed bus ride with lots of backpackers to the boat on Arenal lake , for the ride across it ready to be picked up for the journey up to Monteverde!
Sue: the trip across the lake was very relaxing, with a good view of the volcano. When we reached the other side there was no sign of any buses but, to our relief, three small tourist buses soon appeared, carrying people off in various directions.
Our route from then on was full of potholes and took us up and up towards beautiful cloud forest scenery, with the driver deftly weaving the bus between the bumps in the track. I had a nice chat to a French girl from Strasbourg, who was with her boyfriend travelling independently. She said they had had no trouble finding accommodation in each place, but that transport was a bit more erratic – you could work it out, but had no idea how long it might take to get to your destination!
We had a comfort stop part way and after that I counted 166 butterflies in the hedgerows before reaching our destination! Little white and yellow ones flitting about, bright russet coloured ones flashing past and large blue ones with vivid wings, which fluttered by slowly displaying their colours.
Our accommodation, Heliconia Lodge, looked lovely and was a little way up he hill from Santa Elena. The rooms were huge, with a spectacular view across the town. The boys were particularly looking forward to the pizza oven and it did not disappoint when we had lunch in the hotel!
After lunch we had a siesta and the boys played football on a little pitch with goals next to our accommodation.
Dave: the views from the room are spectacular with clouds rising up on thermals. We also got a bit of a sunset, but much better ones the nest few days.
Sue/ Dave: We then walked down to explore the town and had dinner in the TreeHouse restaurant, which was built around a massive tree and accessed via a spiral staircase around the trunk. We got a table at the edge of the balcony overlooking the street. it was a bit windy but pretty relaxed. The atmosphere was amazing – we could hear the music from a church service that was in session across he street, the buzz of cars and people, and a group of children playing, trying to jump high enough up a wall to then climb up the mesh above the brick! Poor old Sam was made to ask the way to the nearest supermarket , which turned out to be next door. A couple of beers and some nachos later we jumped into a cab back to the hotel and a few games of bananagrams later we retired to bed.