We stayed at a family run Bed & Breakfast called the Mariposa in Monteverde. The "dining room" and computer were literally located in the family's living room. Once we went to use the computer and the nephew came out and started playing Game Cube. No joke. It was a very comfortable place and going to breakfast was always a highlight.
After filing up on "gallo pinto" (black beans and rice), we headed out to the Cloud Forest which was only about a mile walk away. We had heard they limit the number of people into the park, something small like 250 at one time. After getting some advice from the guy up front about some trail closures (unfortunately 2 of the ones we wanted to do were closed), we set off on a multi-kilometer walk.
The weather was somewhat overcast and a bit humid but not like Manuel Antonio
The first piece of wildlife we saw!
For those unfamiliar with the term Cloud Forest (according to Wikipedia):
"A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a high incidence of low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained.[1]"
It's always raining and muddy in the Cloud Forest!
Love how this tree looks
The canopy
Suspension Bridge
Dr. Seuss tree
We didn't see a lot of wildlife but we did hike trail after trail and heard lots of elusive wildlife
Boo only picked this up because he saw a hired guide do it
Too close to my face!
More bugs
One of my fave pics
It was pretty hot by now
I'm never that interested when I see bugs in the US but here, we took a picture of every single different one
Cloud forest indeed
This looks very Myspace
Resting dragonfly (there were a lot of bugs up here)
Just chillin
Sometimes the cloud hung low enough where I felt like I was in a movie
It looks like a glorified pigeon but it took us a long time to get a photo of it!
Some kind of fungi
We got lost at some point and thought we might be on one of the closed trails. Turns out that the signs were not very clear and we were on the right one all along! That's the fun thing about exploring though; you always end up where you're supposed to.
The end of our hike was to a small waterfall
It started raining
On our way that morning, we had seen a smushed bug in the road but hadn't taken a photo. It was so gnarly that we got it on the way back. That's Greg's hand by the way.
Definitely would not want to come face to face with a real one
Our clean room at the Mariposa
Flowers at the grounds
Why are their heads so big?
That night we went on a night hike where I had hoped we'd see cool wildlife but we did see some unusual creatures
A real, live tarantula!
At night, bats come to feed at the hummingbird feeders
Tiny frog
The next night apparently there was one of these in our ROOM!!
In the middle of the hike, one of the other guides got really excited because he was trying to track an owl that is 2 1/2 feet tall! We were literally running through the forest trying to track it down. Finally, we were able to see some dark figures that were pretty far away but distinctly owls. They shined powerful flashlights so we could catch a glimpse. The guy said he'd been working there for 3 years and it was the first time he'd ever spotted one.
Overall not the most exciting thing in the world but glad we did it anyway. There's something really interesting about walking in the forest at night.
End, Day 5!
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