For our first full day in Santa Elena we went right for the main attraction, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. This was the main reason we decided to visit this area, so we were excited to experience the cloud forest. Given that this area is famous for its biodiversity, especially in birds, we signed up for a birding tour for the whole morning. Unfortunately it was raining steadily when we arrived, so we knew it was going to be a bit of a slog.
The tour got off to a great start at the hummingbird feeders where there were clouds of hummingbirds flying in and out to grab a bite to eat. They would yell and fight at each other and simply did not care about our presence. It was really something to feel the wind of these little missiles as they cruised by our heads. From there we headed up into the main portion of the reserve to spot some more birds.
Unfortunately, that is when we realized what kind of tour this would really be. We spent a couple of hours slowly walking the trails looking for birds. We did see a few from time to time, but never got a great view of them. All the while, the rain just kept dripping down on us. I only ended up with a few really good photos, and I’m pretty sure that breakfast was everyone’s favorite part.
After our tour ended we decided to go for another walk along the forest trails on our own. I was really feeling the need to move around after the super slow birding tour, so we set off on a big loop around the park. The hike turned out to be lovely, though still wet. The cloud forest is certainly a different landscape than what we had seen in the Arenal area. There was moss everywhere. We saw a few more birds on our loop then headed back to our room to dry off and warm up a bit.
Taken 2/17/23
