Giant Fern Tree Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde Costa Rica is filled with tourist from all over the world from January through March which is the time it rains less.  It is located high in the cloudy rain forest, atop the continental divide and about 110 miles from San Jose, the capital city.  The only access is by road and the road (from the Interamerican highway (highway 1) is about 26  miles (43 km) of dirt, rocks and gravel taking  over one hour to navigate.   How to get to Monteverde?  Take the Interamerican Highway north.  22 miles past the Puntarenas turnoff–on the Interamerican Highway are signs which are not easy to see so go slow and look carefully.  If you get to the Lagarto River you have gone too far.   It will be a right turn onto a dirt and gravel road  going for 26 miles winding up into the Cordillera de Tiliran mountain range until you arrive to the small town of Santa Elena (Monteverde)  Allow 4 hours drive from San Jose and do not do the drive at night.

A group of Quakers from Alabama came to settle here in the 1950s as a place free from militarism.  They supported themselves by making cheese from the milk cows they raised.  Today this cheese is famous all over Costa Rica and can be purchased in most of the local grocery stores.

The infrastructure in and around Monteverde is basic.  Many of the roads remain unpaved.  You feel very peaceful here because it does have feel over developed by large hotel chains.  The accommodations are small and many of them are locally run.  The more upscale is the Hotel Sapo Dorado, Pension Heliconia,  and Hotel Belmar.  Also you will find many smaller pension type accommodations run by the locals.

What are the big attractions here?  1.  The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve- This reserve is home to the Resplendent Quetzal, the most spectacular bird in the tropics.  It is a large bird with  long iridescent  green tail feathers.  The Mayan people of Guatemala believed the Quetzal to be the “Bird of Life” and symbolized supreme freedom.   These birds are not easy to spot and one should hire a local guide if you want to see one.

2. And of course you will find tourist attractions  such as zip line tours (Canopy Tours)  and walks over swinging bridges, butterfly farms, hummingbird gallery, snake exhibits, orchid gardens, horseback riding,  and the Quaker cheese factory tour.   You should stay a minimum of three nights to experience this place.

The weather is very cool and humid since it is in a cloud forest so you need a rain jacket and warm clothes plus very comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots.

Many restaurants are scattered around town.  And most hotels include a full breakfast in their room price.  Unique is the homemade granola made fresh daily from 100%  locally grown  ingredients. If you are there on the weekend be sure to go to the Santa Elena local farmers market where  you will find all the home grown vegetables and fruits.  Many of them are organically grown, plus you can interact with the locals.

Monteverde has some very nice art galleries, feathering beautiful work  by local artisans.    Just ask at your hotel.  This is a small community and the galleries are easy to locate.

Monteverde is also famous for the “Golden Toads” which are now believed to be extinct.  Scientist do not know why but speculate that a fungus killed them.

If you are traveling to Costa Rica and are looking for a laid back destination to experience the rain forest and unspoiled natural beauty then put Monteverde on your itinerary.  Tips: 1. Rains a lot here especially August, Sept, Oct.  Best to visit January through April when it rains less.  Also more tourist come in these months and there is more activity-restaurants etc.   2. You need a 4×4 if you are renting a vehicle to drive there.    3.  public bus goes daily to Monteverde from San Jose  and back to San Jose.

I would spend the money and hire a local guide who knows where all the birds and wildlife can be located.

Quetzal Monteverde Costa Rica

On your travels to Costa Rica are you planning to go to Monteverde?  If so you may be lucky and see the most beautiful bird in the rain forest, the resplendent Quetzal. Yes, Quetzals can be found deep in the Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve.  They make their nests in holes in the trees.  The female lays two light blue eggs. Then both she and the male take turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them.

The quetzal is found in the highland cloud forest from Mexico all the way down through Central America.   To the Mayas and the Aztecs, the quetzal was sacred.  They used the tail feathers from the male in their headdresses.  Guatemala’s  monetary unit is called the quetzal.

In was in the month of August that I was very lucky and spotted a Quetzal  not long after I started my hike into the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.  What a sight!  It was a male with his long tail feathers, seeming about two feet long.  Our guide said we were extremely lucky because this bird is reclusive and very hard to spot.

Thinking of vacationing in Costa Rica? You would love a copy of our Costa Rica travel video (DVD) “Costa Rica a Travel Adventure Spectacular” Video. You will see first hand the 10 most popular tourist destinations in Costa Rica, including the Monteverde Cloud forest.  Go to the home page of costaricalearn.com, then to the top of the page and click on “buy our Video” There You can view a 3 minute preview and also instructions on how to purchase the video.  Three years in the making , filmed and edited by Ken Creed, a National Geographic veteran and Ann Cabezas Creed, travel writer and Costa Rica Travel Agent.

resplendent quetzal

The Community named Monteverde was settled by eleven Quakers  families from Alabama in the early 1950s.  They left the United States and came to Costa Rica looking for a new home,  because they had a strong belief against the military system of the US .  Costa Rica,  in 1948 permanently abolished it’s army, and known to be a peaceful and beautiful country.    These young settlers had searched from the Panama border,  the entire length of Costa Rica and over to the Nicoya peninsula searching for that perfect place to settle and raise their families.  They  choose this area for it’s  cool, moist mountain climate, and remote setting, and gave it the name Monteverde, meaning “green mountain”  This area was sparsely populated and the soil was rich.  They brought with them skills of farming and started dairy farms and began to make cheese ( this cheese is famous today). They planted gardens and raised their food, and soon began to raise cattle for beef production.  They built their homes by cutting and sawing logs and used a system called  “the working bees” where members of the community joined in to “raise a house.”

The Quakers founded a school to educate their children and gave it the name School of Friends, and the school is still operating today. They sought to teach the children Real Values and make them grow strong mentally and spiritually. The Quakers believed that a part of a child’s education should be to learn about the environment and how to protect our natural resources. They believed in living a simple life where the family is the most important thing.

The Quakers believed in no barriers of race, creed, or nationality and soon integrated with their Costa Rican neighbors  who were very friendly and helped  them  settle.

Today the Quakers numbering around 800 still make their home here.  They  are also very successfully growing coffee, and are actively  involved in the tourism industry which is the biggest business now in the area of Monteverde.

Monteverde as a tourist destination. Despite the difficult road to get up to Monteverde, it is a major tourist attraction in Costa Rica, drawing up to 200,000 visitors per year.  Tourist interested in nature are lured here by the famous  Monteverde cloud forest Reserve (in Spanish Reserva Biologica Bosque Nuboso)  The hugh trees  making up this primary rainforest will enchant you. The weather is cool and moist due to its high elevation, and has an enchanting mist over it, giving you a feeling of being in the clouds.    The annual rainfall is 118 inches.   This reserve was founded in 1972 by a scientist named George Powell and a Quaker Wilford Guindes.  The reserve has 9 main trails , totaling 13 Km.  the walking trails are well marked and easy to walk, although a few have  steep inclines.  I visited in March when the weather was not so rainy and I was lucky to see the Splendid Quetzal.  This bird has its mating season in March and April and makes its home within this forest.

The Quetzal is a large bird, brilliant  blue-green in color with a red breast.  It has a long tail with beautiful feathers.  It is reclusive and hard to spot, but our guide knew where it was nesting. The Quetzal was sacred to the ancient Mayan and Aztec people .  Royalty and priests wore its feathers  during ceremonies.

We wanted to take another hike so we choose the near by  Santa Elena Cloud Forest at 5,600 feet above sea level.  Here we have 12 Km of trails to choose from but of course we aren’t going to hike all of them.  So we choose one of the easier ones and begin our journey.  Its very cool today and we need our rain jackets, there is a steady mist in the air.  The trees are hugh and seem to grow to the sky with very little sunlight coming through.   The trees are   filled with all the varieties of bromeliads which are blooming   in colors and bright reds and pinks.  The sounds of birds are all around us.  We are  looking for the splendid quetzal but unfortunately we weren’t able to spot it.  We have been told that it is very hard to see one.  We saw a howler monkey in the distance but due to the dense forest we were unable to get near him.  After two hours I was tired so we returned to the hotel for a nice long rest.  Listening to the patter of the rain on the tin roof.

What is the difference in the Monteverde Cloud forest  Reserve and the Santa Elena Cloud Forest?  The Monteverde Cloud forest reserve is more of a PRIMARY rainforest.  This means that the trees are very very old (hundreds of years)  Santa Elena Cloud Forest is a secondary rainforest meaning that at some point in time– the trees were cut and then replanted.  The trees here are hugh and beautiful–just not as big and tall  as those in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

The beautiful photo of the quetzal shown above was taken by photographer Scott Wilkinson.    See more of his work at www.scottwilkinson.com

Or  www.sapotours.com/gallery.aspx