Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I spent 1st and 2nd August in Santa Elena-Monteverde which are areas of Costa Rica with cloud forest. An early start saw us take the van-boat-van transport from Arenal to here. It was an hour long boat ride across Lake Arenal with the volcano as its backdrop. The volcano was covered with some cloud, and actually when we left the hotel at 7am it was completely covered and you wouldnt know it was there! Apparently some people come and never get to to see it as it is covered in so much cloud. The second mini bus ride was a 2 hour very bumpy one but quite scenic. We saw coffee plantations, and tried the red fruits which contain the coffee beans which make excellent Costa Rican coffee, I have no idea though as I dont drink it! We stayed in Santa Elena which is one of two small towns in this cloud forest area. I kind of thought wed be in the clouds there, but we werent, however it does depend on the weather and the cloud was pretty low and therefore almost misty at times. It was a bit cooler here, a welcome relief from the previous heat and humidity, although not that much cooler, and hot when the sun was out, I did need to put my fleece on one afternoon. We did a night walk in the evening, I wasnt sure whether itd be worth paying the 20 dollars as ive done night walks in other places, but it was well worth it. It started at 5.30 when it was still light but it then got dark, torches were provided. We saw an animal called an agouti (a little like a large guinea pig apparently), a sloth (who was high up in the trees), lots of spiders, some butterlies and moths, a massive stick insect.... We had dinner and then earlyish to bed as we had a 7.30 pick up the following day to go for a walk in the cloud forest. This was another interesting walk, we walked in the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve, which is apparently much less visited than Monteverde cloud forest. We saw lots of different flora and fauna, and also a snake up in a tree, spotted by our guide, not sure how, it was very well camoflaged! There were also lots of hummingbirds. We saw a toucan too, but to be honest I had trouble seeing where it was and by the time Id found it in the tree, it flew off, which was a shame. A lot of the group went off to do ziplining, a major attraction in this area, but that was not for me, no way id do it! I went to the hanging bridges canopy walk with a couple of the other girls. It was a good walk, sometimes walking in the forest on paths, sometimes on the hanging bridges, which were also often above the canopy, pretty high up. It gave great views across the canopy, just a shame we didnt see much on the way of wildlife, I think thats because of the human activity in the area, there was a zipline there too, at times, youd see people zipping along at great hights over the canopy, it just confirmed i was glad i wasnt doing it! ha ha! I had lunch, a vegetarian casado, which was really nice (typical rice and beans with vegetables, salad, cheese, avocado) then wandered in the little town. I was quite tired after the two walks Id done, and ended up having a litle sleep, which meant I missed the trip to the frog pond. The group all went out for dinner in the evening, had a nice stuffed pepper and little chocolate truffles for dessert! This was our final night in Costa Rica, Ive realy enjoyed my time here., its a great country to visit! Im really glad I spent the 9 days here on my own and enjoyed the places I saw then, as well as Monteverde, I realy liked it here too. Goodbye Costa Rica and tomorrow, hello Nicaragua, next stop on this tour of Central America!
- comments