When I planned my itinerary, one of my priority criterias for hotels was that hotels should have a restaurant, as I would know that the food is safe, and I wouldn’t have to worry about walking alone as a female at night, especially with lack of lighting in remote areas.

Well, yesterday, I posted this status on Facebook:

So much for traveling during low season…the restaurant at my hotel is closed for lunch and dinner and the closest restaurants from the hotel where I am staying is one mile away… I’m a smarty pant for bringing crackers and bars with me! At least I’m at this hotel for only two nights, and I hope the restaurant at the next hotel will indeed be open, or I’m going to have to make a change of plans… Oh la la .. the dramas of traveling!

So, when I arrived at Monteverde, I didn’t see any nearby restaurants in sight.  I also looked on Google Maps, and it showed that the closest restaurants were at least a mile away from the hotel.  As I was exhausted, I just stayed at the hotel, watched the sunset, relaxed and ate crackers and a granola bar.  Relaxing was extremely important, as I knew that I had a big day ahead of me – Zip-lining and hiking in the rainforest and visiting a coffee plantation.

The green arrow is the hotel where I stayed

Now, here is my today’s Facebook status:

Learned a lesson today – Don’t pay attention to Google Maps, especially when traveling abroad – it turns out that there are a ton of restaurants and shops “on the other side” of the hotel that I didn’t see yesterday on the way to there AND also on Google Maps! For now on, hotel concierges are my best friends!

I did ask the hotel concierge where the closest restaurants were located yesterday, and he did tell me that there were several about 200 to 500 meters from the hotel, but I just wanted to get a confirmation by looking up the Google Maps, as I indeed didn’t see any yesterday on the way to the hotel from San Jose.  So, I just thought either I didn’t really  know the math and thought that 200 to 500 meters equal to a mile or that the hotel concierge was underestimating the distance.  Well, he was indeed right – they were all right there!  Ah well!

At least this afternoon after my two tours, I got to enjoy walking around the area by visiting shops including one ENORMOUS art gallery.  There is apparently a huge art community in Monteverde where there are not only Costa Rican artists, but also artists from other countries, in particular from the states.

I didn’t bother to get dinner, as the hotel served a NICE BIG breakfast, I had a very nice lunch at my first tour, AND a lovely snack at my second tour.  So, my body is very well nourished for the day.

Stories about the tours will follow in the next post!