Monteverde, Provincia de Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Monteverde Cloudforest
one-line bridges
once
in a while you come pass a sign saying: “Puente Angosto” and then
you know that soon a bridge will come one lane only. And it’s a
first come first serve!! so be ready to stop on the spot because once
in a while you can’t see it.
A
windy road taking us up to 1400 m elevation
after
paying our 42 Cents for Highway toll (I mean really is it worth to
even collect that?) or 190 Colon (yes it’s not 200, it’s 190).
And then along the ocean we can see over to the Puntarenas peninsula
and we even see a cruise ship out there: yes that was us 1.5 years
ago. It’s time to turn and go up hill – it is a beautiful view on
the mountains and once in a while a glimpse on the ocean but then
comes the next turn:
it’s
bumpy – dusty and gravel
and
for the next 17 km it’s gravel – it’s extremely dusty
especially since we have a car in front of us. So windows up and air
conditioner on... and then over the bumpy road it goes up. Gine
thought she can quick open the window to take a nice picture: bad
idea the wind blew in so much dust and dirt, it was disgusting!! That
means windows need to be closed!! we had some great views no doubt
about that: on the mountains, sometimes all the way down to the far
away ocean. And now we know why Google map said you need 35 Min for
17 km – because in some parts it was super bumpy to drive... Paul
was quite challenged and we wondered how many are really coming up
here – good thing we have a 4x4 – and I should mention Paul was
10 Min faster than google map. Oh and we saw the first ox-drawn cart
in the dust!!
By
the way: it was so bump our mild carton in the cooler got a little
hole and leaked milk in our thankfully waterproof cooler. And our car
is disgustingly dusty – especially the windows.
our
cute little bungalow
we
arrive at Monteverde and thanks to Maria’s link as well as the
great pictures we find it right away. Find the opener and go into the
little compound and get greeting by a nice lady who shows us the room
and the key, the coffee and how the little manual coffee machine
works. We make some typical Costa Rican Coffee and decide that we are
too tired to do anything today. We are both not the most healthiest;
since Gine starts now to sneeze too!!!
After
a phone call with Maria – she will organize all for us the Cloud
forest and the Ziplining so all we have to do is relax.
is
it raining or what?
When
sitting outside in the sun looking down onto the village and the
ocean we feel some light rain and wonder if it is raining because the
sun is also shining. Guess that is why it’s called the cloud
forest.... it’s always moist and humid.
Santa
Elena
We
drive down to the little town and discover it is actually nearly as
short to walk :-) I think this tiny town only consists of either tour
booking places or restaurants. One tiny little circle done in less
than 10 Min and you saw it all.
And
a new street sign: “No Hay Paso” do not enter when there are
one-way streets
We
quickly checked out the super market maybe it is cheaper to cook
ourselves – but then when we check out Raulito’s Pollo: it’s
actually cheaper to eat out then buy the food in the supermarket!!!!
We
deserve a cup of coffee and find a nice bakery get ourselves some
cake chocolate and cheese cake. And especially for Paul we found
chairs and tables made from tires and for Gine: the artificial
christmas tree was still there too.
Back
at our place we decide that we relax for the rest of the day –
because tomorrow there will be a lot do to. So Paul decided to take a
nap and Gine decided to sit out in the sun.... and during that you
know why it is called the cloud forest: you can see the fine mist
coming down even the sun is shining. It’s not really rain – but
it is a little bit wet. It is amazing to see the mist.
A
Rainbow
Oh
and did I mentioned it, it is quite cooler that high up: with 23
degrees it is still kind of warm – but nothing compared do being
down at the ocean where it was around 33 C.
And
as we relax around our little bungalow and the mist comes down we can
see a rainbow in the mist above the rainforest – It’s absolutely
beautiful.
A
windy night
it
gets quite cold up here – especially with the wind. So we decided
to eat in. We drove down and picked up some chicken, salad and french
fries – brought it home and cuddled up in our cozy little place –
it’s perfect. Instead of the jungle we now here the wind howling
around our place.
In
the morning the sun came out and we could sit outside and let
ourselves warm up a little bit
Why
do we come to Monteverde?
- it’s known worldwide for its unique cloud forest reserve – as per Maria it is one of the 7 wonders in Costa Rica: the others we are visiting are: Paos Volcano – Tortuguero Canals – Celeste River – Arenal Volcano. We will miss the Isla de Coco and the Chirripo mountains
- it is named for the ephemeral mist that always envelop the forest: swirling mist are created by humid Caribbean trade winds drifting over the continental divide where it forms dense clouds
- a cloud forest is a highland forest: characterized with 100 % humidity throughout the year
- you can find the epiphytic plants like orchids and bromeliads, as well as 94 different species of pipers
- as per National Geographic it is “the jewel in the crown of the cloud forest reserves” - by the way it is privately owned
- Monteverde itself is a tiny Tico Village a settlement by the Quakers. 44 of them came in 1951 because Costa Rica had no army
the
roads are bad in Monteverde
that’s
what they say.... and today we got a whole lot of that. First up to
the Monteverde reserve gravel and super bumpy... then we got told
that there is no parking up at the park and the park is full we
should come back in an hour!!! so we drove up and found a kind of
parking along side the road in a ditch so close to the earth you
couldn’t even open the co-pilot side at all.
From
there over to the Sky adventure: I mean it is big advertisement
right! But the road was super rocky .... I mean driving here is an
adventure and you really don’t want to bring your own car here.
Walking
through the Monteverde Cloud forest
Arriving
we got told that the park is full there are a max f 250 people
allowed at any time. So we went on a waiting list. And finally got
called as #9. Now the next thing is how do we find Jorge??? Not so
easy – so Gine asked another guide and he new Jorge and pointed him
out. He was super nice and we went on the search for the Quetzal
bird, but we saw the Tucam a real cool looking little bird – they
say the most beautiful bird... we were not lucky today. But we saw a
lot of 2nd growth cloud forest – we saw one old growth
tree, we learned about the ficus strangler growing around other
trees, we came to a cute waterfall, saw a giraffe beetle, meet Ants
which can bite very strongly but get totally bumped when biting in a
coin and the best we saw a moss-mimicking mantis: Jorge said in 14
years he only saw it now the 2nd time because they are so
rare and difficult to see. And yes as soon as Jorge put in on the
moss if I wouldn’t known it was there I would not have seen it. As
well we saw a huge Fern... it is unbelievable how tall they grow: ok
the one we saw was “only 6 m tall”. We learned about the little
beetle who eats through the rolled up leave leaving a perfect pattern
of holes. We saw the wandering fern: when his spot is not sunny
enough he grows a little fern at one of the leaves which then roots
in the soil and it starts growing there. We learned about the fruit
you shouldn’t eat unless completely ripe because it contains cyanid
(which smells a little bit like almond) – so you better wait before
eating otherwise you only eat one.
And
we saw that the Costa Rican’s are happy people – even the tree’s
have a smile
Zipling:
we
always talked about going ziplining and what better place than here.
Now the big question is: which zipline to choose???? there are too
many choices – so we asked Maria and she suggested the Sky
Adventure and she also booked it for us:
- it got invented in Costa Rica by the biologist Donald Perry to study the rain forest canopy in 1979: he pioneered in new methods for climbing into and moving around the rain forest anopy: it’s simple you put a cable or in the old days a rope from one tree to another at an angle you you can slide across (Variants of this technology have been used for centuries to transport cargo across rivers or ravines in China)
- 18 years later a Canadian Darren Hreniuk opened the first one for the public here in Santa Elena
- So Costa Rica did not invent the technology but they figured out how to make it fun
- so if you come to Costa Rica to fly: then here is the place to do it
By
the way our day was really timed out: at exactly 1 pm we arrived at
the reception... and then it went non-stop until 5 pm.
Part
1: the Sky walk
this
is a 2 hours walk (ok Paul now complained because he walked already 2
hours in the Cloud forest) and without break only some water to drink
we went on the next 2 hour walk: this time we not only walked through
the cloud forest we also walked over 5 hanging bridges (the longest was 236 m long and the highest: 50 m high)– which was
super cool. (ok the only thing we didn’t experience here was the
misty cloud forest – but maybe that was a good thing otherwise we
would have been wet all the time... so we saw it in sunshine and lots
and lots of wind. And we learned and saw a lot: we saw a taruntula in
her nest, we saw Howler Monkeys jumping around, some birds, and a
sloth doing nothing but resting (because they only eat leaves which
doesn’t has a lot of nutrients they only can move slowly.... guess
we shouldn’t only eat then green!!!)
Karina
told us a lot about the trees and the cloud forest. As well we
learned that in the dry season it is windier (and we experienced the wind and agree). We saw the red flowers
to attract humming birds and learned that in the rain forest the
flowers don’t smell, we saw the Maria plants where the lines all go
to the end of the leaves, we saw 2 mini orchids: one in white and one
tiny one in yellow they are hiding underneath the leaves and you can
only see them from underneath and they grow out of the leaves. We saw
a tree where the new leaves are brown: so the animals don’t eat
them... we saw the huge umbrella leave plant and the trumpet trees.
We
learned that it is difficult to know how old a tree here is: as where
our trees have year rings from when they stop growing in winter –
here the trees don’t have year rings.
We
smelled the fruit which smells like citronella: and if you open it
and rub it on you it is a natural insect repellent.
Part
2: the Tram ride
before
it we got geared up for the Zipline: helmet – safety gurts –
gloves: got a quick introduction and then we ziplined a super short
introduction zipline to thethe aerial tram to the top: up to 1700 m
and I can tell you it was windy: we got told the wind blows toda with
80 km/hr – and we are in a open air tram: the view was fantastic –
we could see the Nicola Peninsula, the mountains of Monteverde... and
from the top we saw the Arenal Volcano... only downside was the cold
wind!!!
Part
3: the Ziplining:
climbing
even higher up on a viewing platform we zipped over the forest: What
was the best is not only the speed and the long zipline it is flying
over the cloud forest with all the trees below you and the views...
twice we had a tandem zipline: the longest of them was a tandem
zipline because they said otherwise the wind is so strong that it
would blow you around. We definetely have to do it again because it
is so much fun, but then it has to be in warmer weather – that was
the biggest downside: as soon as the cold wind came you felt cold....
it is nearly as bad as at home!!!
and by the way: the do know that we are tourists!!! we spend quite a bit of money here.
In
need of a hot soup
cold
and tired that was how we were at the end of the day: from 10 o’clock
on we were walking or ziplining through the forest... no wonder we
felt cold and were in need of a hot soup: kind of home made from a
package with the left over chicken from yesterday.
And
the road on the way out: is rough and bumpy
And
before we forget: Paul went out this morning to clean the front
windshield... so Gine can take some pictures (or that Paul actually
sees where he is driving!!)
we
are taking the 606 in the other direction out and hope it is a little
bit better. It started out a little bit better but then we are back
to the super rough gravel with lots of potholes... it is again a
bumpy ride. When we left it was quite cool and the first time we
stopped to enjoy the view it was still a cool breeze in the air. But
then the view on the drive down was again fantastic: I mean this is
such a gorgous place.
Then
we pull out because we find a tiny little viewing platform and from
the Mirador el Golfo - we enjoyed the view towards the Pacific ocean
and the Nicoya Peninsula... this is really spectacular. One thing
which totally amazed us was that the electricity post all had a
street light!! then suddenly the road was super nice paved for a few
km and then it went back to the rough gravel. At our next stop the
air was already getting warmer.
An
hour later we are over the worst of the gravel and end up in some
tiny little towns... I would say the tourists do not stop here. And
with that we leave the cold weather and we are on the way to the
warm: the Nicola Peninsula
2025-05-23