Wednesday, 31 December 2025
Up at a reasonable hour for a 0815 departure. Plan was to drive for 45 minutes or so, transfer to a boat for an hour’s journey along Lake Arenal, then transfer to another minibus for another 90 minute drive to Monte Verde.
On the way to the lake we saw a troop of Howler monkeys in the tree tops and a yellow throated Toucan – a bird which turned out to be a decent size. Well , bigger than you would think from the Froot Loops advertisements anyway.
And a video Mark managed to shoot on the I-phone :
Apparently (?) Howler monkeys are the second loudest mammals on earth. Their howling is to both scare predators away and alert others to danger. And before you ask , apparently ( according to Google) the loudest mammal on earth is the Sperm Whale, whose echo location ‘clicks’ can hit 230 dB. As a point of comparison the average jet engine generates 150 dB of sound and the Howler Monkey 140 dB. Howlers can be heard up to around 5 km away.
The yellow Toucan:
Our driver had one job – to get us to the correct place on the lake to hop on the boat. He failed. We arrived at a boat pier to some consternation from the resident boat pier people – we were in the wrong spot. A 45 minute wait followed until a boat ( the boat ? – who knows? 🤷♂️) arrived and we boarded.
The boat trip down the lake was slow and somewhat soporific. Lake Arenal was begun in the 1960s as a hydroelectric project, but took some three decades to finish. It supplies the majority of the power to the central valleys of Costa Rica. Utilising the standard Australian unit of measurement for water bodies it is 1.5 times the size of Sydney Harbour. The lake is surrounded by a mix of rainforest, farms and holiday homes.
Monte Verde lies roughly astride the continental divide range between the (wet) Caribbean side of the country and the (much drier) Pacific side of the country. It sits at an altitude ranging from 1300 to 1500 metres and supports a true ‘cloud forest’- more on that over the next few days.
Monte Verde’s modern history is interesting. It was founded by Quakers from the USA in the 1950s, as their pacifist agenda did not sit well with the US’ engagement in the Korean War. Twelve Quaker families from Alabama moved here and started dairy farming. Which then led to a hugely successful cheese factory, which then branched out into all other sorts of dairy products such as yogurt, sour cream ( Costa Ricans go nuts for sour cream, which they call ‘Natilla’, putting it on everything) and ice cream.
The Quakers cleared a lot of forest for dairy cattle, but at the same time preserved a fair bit of cloud forest to keep the water sources essential for cheese making clean.
In time they realised that the nature part of the land was full of promise for tourism when many birders / twitchers started coming to the area. The decision was made to get out of the cheese and dairy business and move into tourism development. They made a killing selling the cheese business ( it’s still running today but under different ownership) and the rest, as they say is history.
The ‘vibe’ along the Monte Verde area is kind of reminiscent of either Mount Tambourine or Maleny / Montville in Queensland. But with Coatis, Toucans, Armadillos and Quetzals, among other things.
We are heading into town tonight to check out the New Year’s ‘fun’. Some quaint customs that we have been told Ticos ( what Costa Ricans call themselves) practice on NYE include:
- Wearing yellow underwear for luck
- Ensuring you have money in your wallet- this means you will be prosperous throughout the new year
- Taking your luggage for a walk around the block – this ensures you will travel in the coming year
- Eating a grape on each of the twelve ‘strokes’ of midnight – this will ensure good luck. This last one apparently is a legacy of the Spanish colonial era.
Who the heck has yellow underwear? 🤔🤷♂️
Ness’ and Mark’s Wandering 