Exploring Costa Rica’s cloud forest

By Nicole

While we sit at the dock in Marina Papagayo with nothing much to do except wait for a massive shipment of gear to arrive from the States, we decided to take advantage of the delay and do some traveling.  Here we take you to the amazing cloud forest of Monteverde; next up, our adventures with bubbling geothermal mudpots.

Perched on Costa Rica’s continental divide, the cloud forest of Monteverde is drenched in beauty and mist.  It is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, and we had a chance to experience its richness up close.

 Clouds + Forest = cloud forest

In our sweet rented Toyota Yaris, Aaron, Zack and I set off on a multi-faceted adventure tackling boulder-ridden roads, speedy zip lines, a nighttime foray into the jungle, a passel of feisty hummingbirds and an impressive waterfall.  Where to begin but at the beginning.

Meet our trusty Yaris

The road leading to Monteverde, and the nearest town of Santa Elena, is rough to say the least.  The guidebooks warn that a 4-wheel drive vehicle (AKA not a Toyota Yaris) is needed to handle the rocky, steep, rutted dirt roads leading into (and around) the area.  “Pshaw,” we exclaimed to that idea.  Well, let’s just say that we raised a toast to our little Yaris for making it the last jarringly unpaved 35 kilometers into the mountains.  Good thing it’s a rental.

After having some lunch in a cool treehouse and finding a tidy hostel for the night, we set off on our first adventure … hiking to the breathtaking San Luis waterfall.  The ol’ Yaris couldn’t make it across a large stream (no, we didn’t even try), so we parked it and walked the rest of the way to the trailhead (located in the backyard of a private residence).

 We left the Yaris behind and traversed on foot

A tree of Chestnut-headed Oropendola birds captured everyone’s attention—even the homeowner’s—with their eerie songs

The cloud forest’s clouds roll in

Three chickens all in a row

 
Banana-palm tunnel at the trailhead

 Even in a Costa Rican jungle, Aaron likes to represent our old ’hood of Ballard

Mossy rocks

 The stunningly beautiful, two-tiered San Luis waterfall

 Zack took a swim, alone.  Because Aaron and I accidentally forgot our suits in the Yaris.  Damn.

Dusk was upon us as we hiked back to the car.  We grabbed a quick dinner of empanadas from the Super Compro grocery store and waited for our ride to the Monteverde Wildlife Refuge.  Tonight we were venturing into the jungle in search of all things nocturnal.

Our guide led the three of us along the dark trails, past bright green viper snakes slithering along branches, a toucan sleeping soundly, an amusingly slow (and stoned) two-toed sloth and lots of other nighttime creepy crawlies.  It was fantastic.  Night or day, the entire Monteverde region is a nature-lover’s paradise.

A fuzzy Orange-kneed Tarantula waits patiently in her hidey-hole.  Pretty sure I’m the only one who wanted to hold her.

If seeing snakes and tarantulas didn’t get our hearts racing enough, we booked a zip lining adventure for first thing the next morning at Selvatura Park.  None of us had ever been zip lining before, and wow … it was such a rush!  Zooming through the trees and over the forest canopy was absolutely spectacular. 

Aaron and I go tandem for a wild ride

We half-expected to see a jaguar stalking us in the dense jungle surrounding the zip line platforms

Awesome day

Later that afternoon, after finding a rustic, eco-friendly cabin in the woods to rent for the night, we went in search of local coffee and hummingbirds.  Mission accomplished at the Hummingbird Gallery.  Literally hundreds of squeaky, feisty, cranky and hungry little dudes flit and whiz from feeder to feeder completely ignoring the human onlookers.  Lots of spunk in tiny bodies.  And yummy coffee to boot.

 Green Violet-ear hummingbird

Female White-necked Jacobin hummer

That evening we made dinner, played cards, drank rum & Cokes and our favorite wine, a decadent Carmenere that we’re not ashamed to admit comes in a box, and took a night walk to the sound of frogs and crickets.  We had time for one more jungle hike the next morning (where we spied the three-wattled bellbird) before we packed up the Yaris, buckled our seatbelts and bounced back to Bella Star and Panache.

What a trip.