What I like about Monteverde

My new life in Monteverde (the Spanish speaking version of Vermont) is amazing.  I love it here.  Here are a few reasons why

My house and roommates are amazing.  The house feels like a cabin in the woods.  It´s a cute little place that feels like a good mix of modern comforts (oven, stove, hot water in the shower) and old fashioned life.

My new house

My school is amazingly beautiful.  The Cloud Forest School is an amazing place for me to have my first year as a full time teacher!  The school´s Spanish name is Centro de Educación Creativa or La Creativa (The Creative)  We are in the cloud forest (much like a rain forest but higher in elevation so we get more mist than rain, but it rains every afternoon).  Also I have a beautiful view of the Gulf of Nicoya which is part of the Pacific Ocean.  the students in my school take an active role in re-foresting the area.  I believe they said some 50,000 trees have been planted by the school and that each student plants one that is “their tree.”  My co-workers are also very nice, wonderful people who are full of resources and support for me.

My neighborhood

I love getting to walk in the woods everywhere.  Our commute to school is straight up hill.  Whenever we go to our friends´ houses we have to take flashlights, high boots, rain jackets and umbellas because we are walking through the woods and it could start raining at any moment. 

The road to school

Even though I´m not going out for tapas every night, and I spend most of my time either at work or at home, it´s been a great start to the year.  My co-workers and I get to gether very often for potlucks and such.  There´s a group of 6 of us who go on hikes on Sundays and we try to play frisbee and go to the farmer´s market on Saturdays.  This weekend we´re taking a trip to the Arenal volcano not too far from here.  Last weekend we tried to go to the nature reserve, but got distracted along the way by signs for a waterfall.

The waterfall