The Cloud Forests of Monteverde, Costa Rica

I kinda got cut off there, in finishing up posting these throwback posts of Costa Rica that is. Sometimes a spontaneous trip to Mexico City and area will do that. We were under a lot of stress from a big change in life and were looking for a cheap flight deal to Costa Rica, actually, but instead we headed to the beautiful country of Mexico. No problem, both work for a great vacation destination! Before I upload those Mexico adventures, however, I still want to finish this Costa Rica one. So, here we go, now back to our regular scheduled programming with continuing on to Monteverde, Costa Rica for a couple days spent wandering the cloud forest and around the town of Santa Elena.

We arrived after a few hours of going up hill on narrow, winding dirt roads in a shaky van. Gravol medicine is a must before taking this, or any ride, in Costa Rica it would seem. The first night we stayed in Santa Elena (just down the hill from the actual town of Monteverde and the cloud forests) We stayed on an amazing farm called Cabañas Valle Campanas, where they grow the food, make candy and most importantly, coffee!

Due to room availability, the rest of the time we stayed at Casa Batsu, which is conveniently a small hike through a farmer’s field with mountain views and horses, because they just happen to be neighbours with Cabañas Valle Campanas. Both beautiful places doing great things. I would highly recommend either for staying at while exploring Monteverde.

The walk to town centre was about fifteen minutes and from there you can keep walking up the steep hill, or take a taxi, bus or tour group to go see the cloud forests. We ended up doing a little bit of each during our stay. Walking up the hill provides great opportunities to stop and take in the views and fully appreciate the terrain. The higher we got, the wetter it got, but also more rainbows stretching across and beyond the hills and valleys.

Entering the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

We were greeted by muddy trails, lush foliage and the sounds of nature. The entrance can be a bit of a zoo, but virtually no one was on the trails once we were inside the reserve. All the bus groups seem to stick to the shortest trail, leaving us to wander to ourselves through the rest. Maybe the secret to no crowds tough, much like anywhere else in the world, shhh, is to get there early.

After a day of hiking through mud and mist to the highest point of the trail that we were allowed to go (due to bad weather and fallen timber, the very top was restricted), we headed back to Santa Elena to relax and take in the sunset. Good times were had in Monteverde and we drank wine and packed for the beach after it got dark.