First Impressions

My first impressions of here (Monteverde, Costa Rica) were:

Wow,  this is surreal because:

a. It's so incredibly green,  biodiverse, unusual (tropical yet high elevation so not hot), beautiful and nothing like anything I've seen before so seems like we're on a movie set or in another world

AND

b. It's like Nederland (CO) except with a HUGE influx of one group of people that all speak the same language so much so that many signs in town are in both languages (so imagine if Ned had  a significant larger number of Nepalese with more money than locals living in town causing changes like signs to be in English and Nepalese).

I also thought:

1. We are in the middle of nowhere!

2. The school is more "on the map"  than I thought. It seems to be well-known and well-connected. Two American  teachers whom were on the school tour with us today (who are in CR for a month's vacation) are linked to Putney and the private school world...

3. As everyone has said,  Ticos (Costa Ricans) are super nice! This includes all the hotel staff where we stayed for two nights in Alajuela (5 minutes from the airport). They were very helpful, friendly, informative, and accommodating, and the front desk staff are quite proficient in English. If you need a place to stay near the Costa Rican airport, stay at Hotel Eskalima!

4. This is an incredible place to be if you're into nature and art of many kinds! (duh)

5. It's like home in that it's a super small town, (surrounding area population is 7,000 but Monteverde is about 300 people) and there are lots of grass roots efforts. Plus, people are SUPER into protecting the environment here, there's a lot of wind, and you can drink the water and eat the raw produce! Oh, and it's very clean; this is the first Latin American town I've seen without trash in the streets!

There has been little rain so far and with the wind, it doesn't feel that humid for CR. The weather is like home, including a bit chilly at night (65 degrees F last night at 2 am), and just a little more humid than home. I'm sure once it starts raining a lot every day it will feel less like home weather-wise.

Here is the "Centro Comercial" where we first 'landed' when we got to Monteverde.