Monteverde Cloud Forest: “The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? - it is the same the angels breathe.” -Mark Twain

 

“A forest of these trees is a spectacle too much for one man to see.” -David Douglas

The quote really is exactly how I felt walking through the rainforest this weekend. I can’t tell you how many times I stopped along the path and said to Mitch and Pavel, “This is incredible. I can’t believe I’m here.” I have never been anywhere so lush and full of life. We weren’t able to see it, but you could hear life all around you.  The plants covered every inch of the forest, encompassing the forest in a magical green world.

Monteverde is a cloud forest. This meant that we spent a great deal of time in, near, and above the clouds. What a unique experience. Yesterday we hiked in the Santa Elena Cloud Reserve and saw Arenal Volcano, which is an active volcano 14 km from where we were. We went on a 5 mile hike around the reserve and then went zip-lining on a canopy tour, which included a superman line. The superman line was 700 m long and was strung between two mountains. We flew between them, over the valley of rainforest. I felt like a bird flying over the dense forest below.

 

 

While the park is full of life, we saw very few animals. However, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.  Can you even see the frog in the picture? I don’t know how my friend spotted him; he was only about an inch long. Also, notice that you can see the butterfly's body through its wing. It is called a glasswinged butterfly. We had planned on going on a night hike on Saturday, but finally the cloud that had been hovering nearby let loose and it rained for several hours. Instead of doing the night hike, we stayed in our hostel (the nicest we have stayed in yet) and watched a scary Kate Hudson movie while the rain pounded down outside.

This morning I  got up and read my new book. I was extremely excited to find a used book store yesterday, where I bought The Testament, by John Grisham. At a little after seven, I woke up the guys, (as usual, I acted as the alarm clock) so we could head out on our hike.  It was a half-hour drive on some of the worst roads I had every been on, over a stream, and up into the mountains, where it began at a banana farm. It was the most incredible hike. We hiked along a stream filled with small waterfalls for about an hour, the clouds hovering just a hundred or so feet overhead. I can’t put into words how lush the forest was. Even without rain, the clouds that constantly envelope the forest supply it with a refreshing mist of water.

After an amazing hike, we arrived at our destination – a 300-foot waterfall, San Luis. I won’t attempt to describe how gorgeous it was, and the pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice, but here it is. (It was so huge I couldn’t get it in one shot, or even 3, so I took a bunch and stitched them together with my new-found panoramic feature on my camera!)

 

Monteverde was another excellent weekend on my Costa Rican Journey.