Monteverde Cloud Forest
After our bioluminescence experience, we drove the next day from Paquera to Monteverde which took about 5 hours with a few breaks along the way. The first bit of the journey involved driving onto a car ferry that took us across the Gulf of Nicoya. While on board we just sat on the top deck and admired the scenery as we sailed across.
Once we got off the boat, we started our wiggly drive up to Monteverde. As I have said before, the roads in Costa Rica are not very good. So, if you are planning to travel here at some point, I would definitely recommend you get a 4-wheel drive because you are going to spend a lot of time in it bouncing along the road. It is not a must, but it just makes life a lot more comfortable and based on our luck with a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere before, a 4-wheel drive it is.
Once we arrived at our house we got greeted by two very excited dogs. From the moment we stepped out of the car, the dogs started jumping up on us. It was obvious that they just wanted some pats and love (they missed the brief on being an actual guard dog). One of the dogs was called Ditsy which was a very accurate description of the sweet but somewhat simple dog.
We stayed in Monteverde for only two nights but as usual we packed a lot in those three days. The first day was just getting there unpacking, getting groceries in town and of course, as self-respecting Australians, we had to go check out the local cafe. We went to bed early that night because we where knackered from our big day of traveling. The next day we had to get up early again, since we were booked in to go on a bird watching tour in the morning.
When you think Costa Rica, you probably think of very warm weather at all times. Although the temperatures were very comfortable, we found quite a stark temperature difference between the beach side towns of Costa Rica versus the higher mountain towns. It was a lot cooler and at some points we even felt the need to put our jackets on. We found this mainly in Monteverde and San Jose.
The forest was very misty and green. An interesting thing that our guide said was that quite a lot of time people contact him and say oh maybe we shouldn’t go today it’s a bit windy. He always replies with “it is all ways windy in a cloud forest if you don’t have wind the clouds don’t sit on top of the mountain”. The clouds are also the place where the forest gets its water. The trees absorb the water directly from the fog through their leaves. All of this is part of the microclimate of this region.
On the morning of the bird watching tour, we drove to the town where we joined our guide and followed behind them until we arrived at Monteverde Cloud Forest. On the tour we met a wonderful family from Belgium who we instantly clicked with.
One member of that family was in the field of medical research. We didn’t quite catch her exact profession, but she had some amazing stories to tell and insights to share. Why am I bringing up the others on the tour? She made the whole tour more interesting, because I think in a way we saw ourselves in them. They where only backpacking around Costa Rica for two weeks, but we got to chat about the realities of long-term travel, and languages (she spoke four). As we walked through the forest, we also got to talk about how viruses get transmitted between animal species since that was the stuff she did in her work.
During the tour, we not only got to see birds we also got the opportunity to see a type of green tree snake. As part of the tour, we ended at a hummingbird sanctuary where we got to see hummingbirds very close up. The flying birds sound like when a big bug flies past your ear, it makes a deep rumble. I found it so cool to see them in all different colours, just hovering in one place only a few centimetres from our heads.
Here are some photos of them.🥰
Since our bird watching tour was in the morning, that afternoon we had some more soda from a local restaurant. I finally remembered to take a picture of the soda. 😋
Later that day we also had some chill time. While we were relaxing, one of the people who lives on a nearby property called out and told us to come quickly since he had just seen a toucan. We came running and got to see it. Seeing a toucan in the wild is just amazing they are such a unique and colourful looking bird.
To tie everything up nicely relating to Costa Rica, I have made a map, with a visual representation of all the places we have been to in this fascinating country.
In the next blog we pack up yet again and fly to Miami where we will spend two weeks.
