Monteverde, Costa Rica – After spending a wonderful day yesterday on our own at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Daddio and I decided to spend today exploring our immediate environs with the twins. We just walked along the road, heading from our villa toward the reserve. Instead of a sidewalk, there is a narrow wooded trail that parallels the road. It’s pretty well maintained (as it is serving the purpose of a sidewalk) but it’s still rustic enough that the boys were convinced they were “going hiking”.
They were great little explorers, especially Twin S, who charged out in front to climb the hills and venture down the paths. A quarter-mile down the road, a small “hanging bridge” cuts over a gully, providing a perfect opportunity for throwing leaves and looking for birds and bugs.
Other highlights included meeting a friendly horse and spying Santa Claus delivering presents on his ATV. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the latter.)
We capped off the morning with ice cream from the Quaker-run Monteverde Cheese Factory. Best. Coffee ice cream. Ever.
So that little experiment was successful; and we may in fact have a new Christmas Eve tradition (at least for the next Christmas Eve we are in a tropical place).
I had also hoped to adopt the Tico tradition of roasting marshmallows and singing Christmas carols around the campfire on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the twins did not nap this afternoon, so they could hardly tolerate our evening activity. I was shocked that they could not rally, not even for marshmallows! But once the sun went down, they had to go down too.
So that experiment was a bust. Maybe next year…