Day 4: Monteverde Cloud Forest

Morning: We did a hike on our own in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

For breakfast, we headed to the local supermarket and bought milk straight from a container... by measure! It tasted great (if you didn't worry about malicious bacteria, that is).

Then we headed to the Monteverde Cloud Forest by bus. It is a really bumpy road, mind you.

Once in Monteverde, we did a 2 hour and a half hike on our own; we did "Sendero Bosque Nuboso" (numbers 1 to 27 in the map below, in the very bottom part), then turned left up following "Sendero Brillante" and then we took the left handside again to follow "Sendero El Camino", making sure to take the detour in order to walk through the hanging bridge.

Map of possible hikes in Monteverde Cloud Forest; click for a bigger version (courtesy of Centro Científico Tropical)

Hanging Bridge in Monteverde

View from the path in Monteverde

Midday: Hired a guide and did a guided tour.

With the guide we did walk up "Sendero Rio" and came down "Sendero Bosque Eterno", on the left side of the map.

Waterfall in Monteverde

Hiring a guide was a really good idea; after a slide presentation, he showed us many things that were there all the time but that we wouldn't have noticed otherwise; also, he gave details about a lot of interesting stuff. We saw a hairy porcupine sleeping on a tree (?), an orange leg tarantula, many kinds of wild orchids, hummingbirds and finally even the elusive quetzal.

Afternoon: Visits available in Santa Elena

There are many things to visit in Santa Elena:

• the Frog Pond,
• the Butterfly Garden,
• the Serpentarium,
• the World of Insects,
• the Orchid Garden or
• the Monteverde Cheese Factory

(this is just a recommendation: we didn't do it because it was pissing rain).

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