After some relaxing days at the beach in Samara, we continued our road trip to Monteverde. Monteverde is a small town in Puntarenas. The area is known for the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve and one of the most popular destinations in the country. It was a long drive to get to Monteverde. The road was pretty normal until Las Juntas. Then we started driving in the mountains at a maximum speed of 40 kilometers an hour, but to be honest, it took us approximately 1 hour for 25 kilometers. We were pretty happy when we arrived at the hotel. We booked some tours for the next days and visited the Bat Jungle.
The Bat Jungle offers 45 minutes guided tours, where they introduce you in the world of bats. We were the only tourists on our guided tour and we realized very soon that our guide was Belgian. He was from the same region in Belgium so we took the tour in Dutch!! It was really interesting. The bats fly, eat and socialize right before your eyes.
The next day we woke up very early. Busy Busy day! The day started with a visit to El Trapiche (meaning: sugar mill). We had a 2 hours tour. First there is a walk through the plantations of sugar cane, coffee, bananas, plantains and oranges. They explain the whole coffee proces and the sugar cane cultivation.We tasted the sugar cane and some of it’s derivatives. We had a ride on a Costarican ox cart and made our own traditional candy. A very fun experience.
Second stop of the day were the Selvature Hanging Bridges. The trail is approximately 3 kilometers and the hike took us 2h30. It was a bit similar to the hanging bridges in Arenal (see one of my previous posts), the bridges are longer but there are not that many. This park has 8 bridges, the longest 170 meters and the highest 60 meters. Very impressive! We also visited the beautiful butterfly garden.
In the evening we went for a night-hike in the Bosque Eterno de los Ninos. It’s the largest private reserve in Costa Rica, a project of a group of schoolchildren to save the rainforest. There is only a small area accessible for tourists. Jesus, our guide showed us all the secrets of the rainforest at night. It was a nice experience to walk in the dark with only a flashlight to show you the way!
The next morning our guide Roy waited for us at the entrance of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. This is one of the most visited national parks of Costa Rica. It consist of over 10500 hectares of cloud forest. A cloud forest is an evergreen moist forest, characterized by a frequent cloud cover. It was nothing like the other parks we already visited during our stay in Costa Rica. A very magical place. The reserve is also known for its high biodiveristy (2500 plant species, 100 species of mammals, 400 bird species, …) and for the Quetzal, a colored bird in the trogon family. They are not easy to find.
We started our visit at the visitor center where you can see hummingbirds in the wild. There was one that came to sit on my finger, an amazing moment I will never forget!! After that we walked through the reserve, looking for animals. And yes we were very lucky, we have seen the famous Quetzal!
After this visit it was time to go. We had to drive 4 hours to our next destination Manuel Antonio.
Where to stay?
We stayed at the Trapp Family Lodge. It’s the closes lodge to the Monteverde Reserve, only a 15 minutes walk. The building made me think of a wooden chalet in the French Alps, a bit strange in Costa Rica, but I loved it. Each room has it’s own privite balcony overlooking the gardens and the rain forest.
Eileen's wanderlust 