Pork and Apple: Travel Tips - Getting from Liberia to Santa Elena/Monteverde

From Nicaragua we knew the first place we wanted to get to was Monteverde but we were having trouble finding any information about it. So to give a little back this is how we did it:

After crossing the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica at Penas Blancas we caught a bus to Liberia. There are whole bunch of ticket offices at the border so it's very easy to find an ongoing bus. We picked Liberia as our destination because we knew it was a transport hub and were hoping to figure out our next move from there. We were lucky that the owner of the hostel we stayed in seemed to know his buses.

From Liberia you take the 6am Pulmitan Bus to San Jose but you get off at La Irma. We ended up having to pay for the full fare to San Jose (about $8) because we didn't have enough Spanish to properly explain but if your Spanish is better than ours you might be able to pay the partial fare. La Irma is basically a Petrol Station at a T-Intersection. We got there about 7:30am. You just have to let the bus driver know and remember to remind him maybe an hour in. Our's knew what was up so it was easy.

We had time to have a coffee before heading over to the red bus shelter where we waited until about 9:40am to catch the bus that comes from down south. It has Monteverde written on it so you can't miss it. We got into Santa Elena before noon and it cost about $3.

You could probably take the 7am Pulmitan Bus to San Jose and still make it but we took the 6am bus on the hostel owner's advice to be safe, you never really know when these buses will show up. The shelter has a sign saying that the buses to Monteverde come at 10am and 3pm, although we were told the last bus is more like 2:30pm.

Happy Travels

And just in case my description wasn't clear enough have some pictures too!