It’s a long way from Ojochal to the Cloud Forest of Santa Elena and Monteverde – especially when you pass through the touristiest area of the country on a Saturday…maybe not our brightest idea. On the other hand it wasn’t too bad considering this! Closing in on our destination we had a good view of thick and dark clouds over the mountains.
And soon it didn’t rain, it poured. Excellent conditions for narrow and winding mountain roads…enough complaining, it was a challenge, but we did it and arrived at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Lodge!
Due to the weather we decided on dinner at the lodge (excellent idea as the food is delicious!) and turned in early. After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we waited for our guide. Unfortunately there was an issue, but the receptionist realised that something was wrong, and quickly reorganised the day for us! Thank you, Vanessa!
We joined a group for a guided tour in the Santa Elena Reserve. It turns out while this beautiful cloud forest is perfect to discover the ins and outs of the plants, it’s density makes it harder to discover animals though.
We pretended to have seen the porcupine sleeping in a treetop (as Orlando, the guide, said: it’s like pictures of UFO’s; you can point to the smudge on the picture at home and say: look, that brighter spot is the head!). Also, a Tarantula was patiently sitting in her lair, lovely!
The birds flitted around us, singing beautifully and never staying long enough to really see them. Oh, and several milli- or centipedes crossed our path. At the end of the tour it started to be really cloudy and as soon as we had finished, the rain poured down again.
My stomach pointed us in the direction of Santa Elena itself, where we found very good food at the Choco Cafe (we returned the next day too!) Fortified, we started in the direction of the tourist shops and we didn’t mind at all (well, a little) that, covered in our ponchos, we still got soaking wet up to our knees in the downpour. We had a good look around and then we squelched back to the car. We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to birds singing, thunder clapping and howler monkeys howling, holed up in our cozy room. Dinner, was, again, very good at the lodge.
On day 2 I scrambled down to breakfast to be in time for the Original Canopy Tour. There were four of us plus two guides, David and Gerald, who took diligent and altogether excellent care of us. While my heart may or may not have stopped on the Tarzan Swing, I felt at all times safe. It’s a very good idea to follow their instructions though, they are more than suggestions. And, ladies and gentlemen, I had sooo much fun! The rides and views are breathtaking, and climbing up a hollow tree is a Swiss Family Robinson experience. (I don’t remember much about that story, only that they built a tree house.)
We had lunch and rain downtown and went back to relax at the hotel. A visit to the Butterfly Garden was postponed to the next morning. Santa Elena and the Monteverde Cloud Forest Lodge are on my visit-again-list.
freizeitstress 