Ponderosa adventure park

We left the beach today to go to the rainforest. During the rain season. We have been lucky this past week only having a few brief scattered showers here and there but nothing lasting despite the forecast of rain everyday. This would be different because the mountains are where the rain clouds are dumping.

First I had pin dropped a bolt store, specifically "tornillos". I still needed to secure a bolt I lost on the skid place I discovered a couple weeks ago in Antigua. We were passing by the Price Smart in the same town, Liberia, so we stopped there for resupply and early lunch. $70 lighter we headed to the bolt shop and they had everything I needed. I love bolt shops like these all over where you ask for something and they find it. It cost only $1.60 and I bought an extra set of bolts and washers in case the other one fell off too. 

Christine saw an eco park with animal feedings and it was only another 15 minutes down the roads, so without research or planning, we stopped at Ponderosa Adventure park. $150 later, including $10 for parking, we got in. We had to wait 40 minutes before the next tractor was available to haul us around. There were inviting pools but we didn't pay the fee to us then so we just dipped our feet. We also saw there were $2 bags of carrots for sale to feed the animals; we bought four. 

The park has antelope, deer, two types of zebras, giraffe, crocodiles, sheep, goat, Watusi cattle, and ostrich. It was wonderful to interact with the giraffe most of all. We have fed them before in Chiang Mai, Thailand, but there was one that was especially friendly and snorted and bumped heads with me a few times when we both reached down to pickup fallen carrots. We could even pet them although they were mostly skittish.

The skies darken by them time we got back in the RV and headed to Monteverde. The road was good until it headed up the mountain then it became small and narrow and potholed and hill and we drove along the ridge as it rained down and dodged potholes. As it darken we found the turn off for the campground and ecotour was a unpaved road and there was a steep hill and had to try three times to make it up it. Someone was waiting for us outside the campground and assured us that the road was safe but it was muddy and hilly and we got stuck. I texted the campground and they sent two or three guys to assess the situation and said we could make it but four attempts proved them wrong. I started to air down the front tires to get more traction but they suggested backing up to the road. I had walkie talkies with us and they used them to guide us back. It still cost us $20 to camp here though. It rained all night and we had to park nose down until another camper arrived at 830pm, after which we could pull forward and level out. We will have to backup again in the morning. We had gluten free pasta and pesto for dinner and Dd had his Doritos hot dog leftover from yesterday. We have full batteries for the first time on this trip from the sunny days at the beach and staying in hotels. We don't need AC tonight because it is nice and cool with a low of 61 F. We were going to do a night time guided hike and tree climb but arrived too late. Not sure what we will do tomorrow as it is supposed to rain all week. But we are safe and comfortable.