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| Monteverde cloud forest |
For ground transportation, you can use a
normal (local) bus to move between or within cities or you can reserve shuttles
(mainly for tourists) that take you from hotel to hotel between cities. These
shuttles are way more expensive (was 40USD to Monteverde compared to the 1.5USD
of the local bus), but they are more convenient, more flexible in time and
faster. It is said that rental car and driving is dangerous in Costa Rica,
therefore a lot of tourists choose this way of transportation. However, I have
to mention that if you have had driven in Mexico, there is no way you would
feel Costa Rica to be dangerous. Especially in the Arenal and Monteverde region
(around the capital) the roads were beautiful, well maintained and the driver
manner seemed to be normal. (That´s true that if you go to a bit “maniac” place
like Corcovado, you have to count dirt roads, rivers crossing the road etc. so
an economic small car might not be enough to rent.)
The shuttle took about 3 hours to
Monteverde, and the driver (both here and going back to San Jose) was very nice
and tourist-oriented: on the way to Monteverde, he caught some monkeys on a
tree along the road so he stopped to show us. The shuttle is a minivan which
can be bumpy if you sit in the back, but overall the road was nice and surely
faster than the normal bus. Not to mention that we arrived straight to our
hotel (Cala Lodge) in Monteverde, so we didn´t have to drag our bags from a bus
station to the hotel.
We arrived around 7pm to Cala Lodge where
we checked-in and immediately booked a night tour. The receptionist was
extremely nice, had a lot of knowledge about the tours and she booked our night
tour in minutes. She even helped us to order take-out food from the nearby
restaurant as we didn´t have time to have dinner before the tour.
So, at 8pm we already headed to the night
tour with some sandwiches in our bags. Night tours are popular in Costa Rica as
many people go to the country to see wild animals. And at night you can explore
completely different animals than at day: bugs, nocturnal mammals, birds
sleeping etc. The tour we joined took place in a private 30 acre property. The
guides were very well aware of the animals along the trails, so we saw many:
gray fox, jays sleeping, two-toed sloth, snake, ants, spiders, butterflies,
frogs, bats… The tour guide (just as in Corcovado) mainly knew where these
animals are, so there was a high possibility to see them. However, as it is in
the wild, sometimes surprises happen: the guide told us that the group before
us saw an owl hunting which is so rare, that even for the guide it was the
first time in his life to see such scene. And also, bad surprises happen as
well: I was willing to see a kinkajou (a big-eyed, catlike nocturnal mammal),
but unfortunately the kinkajou was “out of office” at that time, so we couldn´t
catch it to see.
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| side-striped palm pitviper |
The next day after a great breakfast we
headed to Monteverde Cloud Forest and (to the recommendation of the
receptionist at our hotel) we booked a tour to Selvatura in the afternoon.
But first, I have to stop to tell you a
little about the breakfast here: overall, the breakfasts were great everywhere,
starting with the coffee. I am rather a tea-type person, but the coffee in
Costa Rica was the first in my life that I drank because it was delicious and
not because I needed caffeine to wake my mind. Of course, there are many coffee
plantations in the country and Costa Rica is in the top 5 of the world´s coffee
makers, but I´ve never thought difference between coffee and coffee can be so
big. (I don´t understand how the Americans can go on drinking that hot, black
water they call coffee after drinking the costarican one. Sorry, but true…)
Next to the coffee, there was always fresh (not canned or bottled) natural
juice on the table and overall, the breakfast was plenty. (In Cala Lodge we had
3 options of hot cakes, scrambled eggs or fried eggs. Also, we got toast and
the jam we had on the table was very delicious.)
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| on the trails of Monteverde |
So, after the breakfast we called a taxi
and went to Monteverde. First we thought to walk by ourselves (there are easy
trails in the forest), but in the last minute we asked for a guided tour. It
turned out to worth the extra 30USD, because our tour guide was telling very
interesting stories both about the forest and birds around here. We didn´t have
much luck with the birds (the main “attraction” here is the Quetzal, which is
said to be the most beautiful bird in the whole world), but we saw some: black
guan, wraps, hummingbirds.
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| huge fern "tree" |
But our guide told us many things about the forest
itself as well: the names of the trees (which I would never know if not told),
that the top of this mountain was the continental divide, showed us teeny-tiny
orchids (there are 500 species of orchids just in Monteverde – the thirds of
all the 1500 species found in Costa Rica) and explained about epiphytes.
Orchids or bromelias are called epiphytes as they live on other trees in order
to get closer to the canopy (and the sunlight). However, these plants are not
parasites as they don´t live on (and eventually kill) the host plant (like the
strangler tree). The epiphytes grow air-roots or lianas that sometimes hang
down tens of meters from the host tree until it reaches the ground. (Just
imagine the Tarzan movies.) Although the strangler tree is a parasite tree and
eventually kills its host, it was really interesting to hear about this tree.
It grows around its host tree and in 20-50 years (depending if the host tree is
soft or hard tree) it completely covers it. As the host tree will not get
enough sunlight and minerals from the ground, it´ll die and rot so the
strangler trees are usually hollow. (Actually there are places where you can
climb up inside of these trees.) However, these trees are not that “bad”: the
animals (coatis, porcupines, birds) love the fruits of the strangler fig, but
the most interesting was that researchers think that these trees communicate
with each other! They think so because it was observed that if there are
multiple trees in one area, the trees share roles: one is in blossoms, the
other start to grow fruits while another has ripe fruits. And when the fruits
are done on one, it is just when another start to ripe fruits! According to the
researchers the trees share roles this way in order to keep the animals (that
help in pollution) around the area (as the animals would migrate if there were
no more food in the area). (Very Lord of Rings…)
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| a super tiny orchid - only one of the 500 species here |
I really enjoyed Monteverde as this was the
“jungle” I`ve always imagined. Although the jungle in Corcovado (a dry forest)
was just as interesting with lots of animals and huge trees, the vegetation
here, in the cloud forest was amazing! As its name says, the place was almost
fully covered with clouds (we were literally within the clouds, so it was quite
chilly and a good raincoat is a must). After the 30 degrees of Corcovado, the
23 degrees felt very cold. But thanks to the continuous rain and humidity, the
vegetation is so rich, even the air looked green! As all the plants are aiming
to the sunlight, the diversity of the epiphytes is unimaginable. Our guide said
that even the professional botanists here are in trouble trying to identify a
tree because of the many-many plants living on them. No wonder, as there are
878 species of ephiphytes in Monteverde.
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| one of the waterfalls of Monteverde |
The toured guide finished around 10am, so we had a little time to grab a
bite and take a little walk by our own. We made a smaller loop to a waterfall. There
are several tails in a 5km loop. This is only a part of the 3% of the reserve
that is open to the public… And finally, some data about Monteverde: the
reserve was established in 1972 by the first quakers from the US coming to
Costa Rica. Today the reserve stretches up to 4000 acres protecting not only
20% of Earth`s plant diversity (over 3000 plants) but also 109 species of
mammals, over 400 of birds, 120 amphibians and reptiles and tens of thousands
of insects.
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| elephant-ear: great for umbrellas |
After the tour it seemed more interesting
to see the trees and look for birds. After getting back to the entrance, we
asked for a taxi and headed back to our hotel as we had another activity reserved
for the afternoon. We had a canopy ziplining reserved from 2.30 at Selvatura.
Now, Selvatura never came up in our Japanese guidebook, but our receptionist
was right again: it was great! Selvatura is a huge forest as well with reptile
and amphibian exhibitions, butterfly, hummingbird garden and insect exhibition…
and a huge canopy zipline course. Before the ziplining, we had about an hour,
so we walked around the trail to see the forest from the bottom. Along the
trails there are 8 hanging bridges that give a spectacular view to the woods
from above.
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| in Selvatura Park |
Unfortunately, we were short of time and we had to rush at the end,
as we had to get back by 2.30pm to start the zipline tour. It was funny,
meeting a couple from our hotel there – we came from San Jose in the same shuttle,
we stayed in the same hotel and now we made reservations for the same tour in
the same hour. After the staff put us in the equipment, explained how to zipline,
we started our tour over the canopy of the forest.
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| ready to zipline! |
The course was greatly made,
the first few cables were relatively short (2-400ms) so everyone could get used
to the equipment and learned how to take balance etc. Then, for the 4th
cable (which was 500 ms) I could already enjoy “flying” over the canopy – it was
time as this cable was fantastic: there was a nice view in the middle over the
forest, the cables went between trees so close, it was raising my adrenaline.
There were altogether 13 cables, and although my husband is afraid of heights,
he bravely went over all the 13 cables. He finally could enjoy the last one as
well! The 13th cable was 1000meters long! Not only the length of
this cable was a bit intimidating, but by this time a cloud came over (or
rather: below) us, so we couldn`t even saw the end of the cable! Fortunately,
this last cable was for two: I came in the front, my husband took his legs
around my waist and we slipped together into the fog. Now, after others who
took video during ziplining, said the 1000ms took 60sec, so our average (!)
speed was about 60km/h. I guess the max was about 80-90? Although we couldn`t
see the view and the speed was so fast, I could hardly open my eyes, but it was
amazing even so! We watched the others to arrive and finally we took the
shuttle bus back to our hotel.
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| the last cable...1km! |
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| people arriving from the fog |
It was already around 6pm when we got back, so
after a great dinner at the nearby restaurant, we headed to the bed as next week we headed to Arenal.
For more pictures, click here! → Monteverde
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