Monday December 10, 2018

Today we got up in the morning to prepare for a very long bus drive. Up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00 and we left by 7:30. Big Blue Bus with an even crazier driver. It took us a long time to get out of the crazy city. But eventually we made it to the country where we started to see the landscape. We seen sugar cane fields, pineapple fields, coffee fields. These things were all new to me, as you could imagine. You could see how the land was cleared for these mono-culture fields and the negative effects to the land as we drove. Our first stop was a bathroom break and the store was a candy snack shack with a restaurant. Come to find out these are very common along the Pan American Highway. The Pan-American Highway stretches across the Americas, and we was on it in Costa Rica. Our next destination was Mount Chirripó. The tallest mountain in Costa Rica, at 12,228 ft. A very rare habitat. As we climbed the mountain we could clearly see the habitat changing. The Trees were beginning to shrink as well as the ground vegetation. We stopped to walk around and to my surprise we ran into blueberries, raspberries, and cranberries. They were tasty. It was a little chilly, but we quickly lost our breath and built up a sweat at about 12,000 feet. That is nearly as high as Mount Adams! Beautiful views, and as their dry season was starting the ground was very much moist and spongy. Plants grow here that do not grow anywhere else on this earth.  It is a beautiful mountain. We descended to about 10,000 feet to the highest restaurant in Costa Rica. Where I had a hard time again accepting the food which was upon my plate. On the other hand there was hummingbirds flying all over as well as a beautiful garden. Now that the dry season is starting it will become below zero soon here at this location and become covered with ice. Moving on and almost 12 hours later we finally make it to the station. Dinner and bed. Good thing there is wifi. I was able to talk to my family. To be continued....