“When properly lost, I find myself humble. I like myself best.” – Old Sean
Urban Departure
I am currently in my second week of exploring Costa Rica. My only previous trips were around the immediate San José area, and as such, the urban center of the country has failed to impress me. But then, cities were never my compulsion.
Three days ago I loaded myself onto a bus from Terminal 7-10 which led (in a five hour drive) to Monteverde. Located in Cordillera de Tilarán mountain range, this unique series of mountains spans six distinct biospheres, the most notorious feature being the cloud forests that ring the rounded peaks.
The bus ride itself was unremarkable and the 7-10 bus station is marginally better than most of the bus stations located around San José (but still slightly sketchy).
I snoozed for most of my trip, slightly toasty and uncomfortable. Costa Rica is a roulette game of comfort in terms of their bus systems. They are rarely (if ever) air conditioned with seats emphasizing capacity rather than comfort. Despite having too wide of a frame to comfortably sit in my seat, I managed to crack a window slightly and doze as we clattered into the mountains.
Impressions of Monteverde
Monteverde is a major elevation change, gaining a little more than 3,000 feet in snaking mountain roadways. I’m fairly susceptible to altitude sickness, so my first day in Monteverde was spent taking things very easy, while eating carbs, drinking water and taking special precautions not to overexert myself.
My AirBnB was extremely accommodating, a large building called Raindrop that could have easily housed three people. The shower room was enormous and I had a balcony view over the small town of Santa Elena.
Additionally welcome were the avian visitors outside my window. A hummingbird was often perched nearby, with feathers that appeared glossy black on most occasions but a dazzling emerald green when closer.
For my first evening, the real enjoyment (and exercise in gluttony) was my slow ambles around Santa Elena Downtown, the most common base for tourists to access the Cloud Forests.
Santa Elena looks like nothing so much as a ski village that somehow got plopped in a fern jungle. The town is supremely walkable, making it pretty easy to do most checklist items fairly quickly. The restaurants and cafes, which are generally quite good, are a few shades more expensive than other potions of Costa Rica.
Munching Around Santa Elena
That being said, Café Monteverde Coffee Shop and Zuccaro Coffee and Bakery were my favorite places to lounge about with fairly decent food and excellent WIFI. Outdoor seating was virtually impossible for me in both locations, largely due to intermittent rain that so frequently graces the Cloud Forests.
Also of note is the Tree House Restaurant, an eatery on the second floor near an immense and decorated tree to give patrons the impression of eating in the canopy. However, it’s generally very crowded and the food is only average. Hence, I would only recommend the place for the novelty and a drink. Villa Burger, located in a slightly hidden corner-ramp next to a Super Compro, is a great option for more affordable and swift meals for those on a budget.
To be totally honest, most of the places I tried in Monteverde were excellent, but those are the few that stand out for one reason or another.
Santa Elena is also crammed with exhibits, miniture zoos, orchid gardens and wildlife attractions. These small stops fill about an hour on their own, and all are fairly nice to view, but the cost for each stop adds up rather quickly.
My first evening in Monteverde complete, I retired to Raindrop where I left every window open (since my lodgings didn’t have air conditioning) to allow the wind in.
And so the wind did.
Weather of Monteverde
Monteverde, beyond it’s well-earned reputation for cloud-cover, is also home to powerful gusts which often dominate the mountains and valleys. Air thundered into my room with only the slightest lulls, and I found my locks brushing against my forehead in a deep sleep even as I hunkered deeper and deeper into my blankets.
Aside from a car alarm somewhere on the opposite side of the valley that first night, I slept exceptionally well.
This turned out to be an enormous blessing, as the next day I decided to walk all the way to Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.
I should mention that I’ve just returned from the United States, where my idea of “walkable” distances rapidly shrinks. I tend to forget that simple leg-power and gumption will get a man just about anywhere.
Despite this, I hunted around for a bus or affordable shuttle to The Cloud Forest Preserve of Monteverde, but was thwarted. My Spanish is spotty, so either there is no bus that direction (for $1 or $2 USD) on Sundays or they had been canceled entirely due to Coronavirus for the time being. I did find a shuttle, but $10 dollars is a somewhat hefty price, so I opted to walk instead.
Into the Clouds
The Cloud Forest Preserve isn’t far from Santa Elena. Perhaps a two hour walk at a slow pace, and much faster on the return (being downhill). I left in the wee hours of the morning, setting out in a light mist well before the sun began dominating the sky. The roads and sidewalks belonged to me and me alone.
This walk isn’t challenging by any means, with lots of sidewalk routes available and some truly stunning views along the hike, most especially the San Luis Viewpoint. Not located on Google Maps, this overlook gazes down the rolling valley in a spectacular visage, most especially impressive during sunset.
This viewpoint can be found very close to the art gallery Arte Jaguar. The more famous viewpoint on this route is known as the Cerro Plano Viewpoint or the Mirador Valle Escondido Preserve, which is equally impressive.
Mist Gate
When I finally made it to Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, I was let in swiftly. I had arrived right at 7:00, meaning that I missed the hoards that gradually began arriving. An ID of some sort, as well as a person’s hotel address is needed to enter. Prices are considerably cheaper with a student ID (this is a common theme in a large portion of Costa Rica’s national parks).
Monteverde is a very unique, extremely diverse forest setting. The first thing that stuns is the sheer sound. The forest, buffeted by wind, mists, fat raindrops and the clattering of leaves is never silent. Waves of sound breach the canopy virtually every minute. Inversely, sound created by individuals is quickly muffled by the surrounding greenery. Great heaps of ferns, blankets of moss and dense trees are profound in their ability to absorb sound. Once upon a time, I’m told that amphibians, especially frogs, kept this forest even louder with their croaks and chirps, but pesticides and climate change have wiped them completely from the biosphere for the past decade.
Trees, vines, ferns and dense, constantly wet plants clog virtually every angle. Trails in Monteverde are less independent paved roads and routes and more areas where there is a simple absence of plants. The green here is electric, a shamrock bright color that leaps at the eye. There is nowhere completely dry, only areas that are coated in a sheltered mist rather than full-on raindrops. Trees themselves are not independent towers, but vertical gardens hosting a cornucopia of parasitic, symbiotic and epiphyte plants. Occasionally, the weight of these crawlers cause a branch to snap and break, but never fall. Rather, the very plants that caused the wood to bend and break hold a twig or branch suspended, caked in a firm dangle of moss or ferns.
A Presence of Clouds
Often, clouds seep through the tress, bringing with them a slight hazing of the trail ahead. More remarkable is the actual, tangible flavor they bring in the air, an earthy taste that brushes the lips. The combination of blurring fog and powerfully dense forests makes Monteverde an extremely poor area for wildlife spotting.
Birds, which occasionally sing, are practically invisible and smaller fluttering creatures such as butterflies or insects are thwarted by the dense mists in the air or the sheer altitude. In both cases, the forest is the most aggressively visible thing alive.
Monteverde is a restored Cloud Forest, brought back to life as one of the country’s bastions of fresh-water. Much like a snowcap, the plant life on the mountaintop sponges up the precipitation from the clouds only to slowly release it to the lowlands, giving Costa Rica an extremely viable freshwater source.
However, since Monteverde is such a relatively young forest, there are no mega-trees that dominate a full section of the jungle, meaning the younger, cluttered trees make visibility beyond a few feet virtually impossible, aside from areas where the canopy breaks for overlooks amongst the mountains.
Navigating Highlands
There are several trails throughout Monteverde. All of them are very well-maintained, with many using gravel or concrete checkered bricks to prevent a person from slipping. The most challenging route through Monteverde is Sendero Chamogo and Roble, which has steep elevation and a distinctly narrow pass.
However, I only spotted one other intrepid hiker during my entire time on this route, who emerged wraithlike from deep fogs with a pair of misted, useless binoculars dangling from his neck. Sendero Camino is the best trail for overlooking large swaths of the forest, with overlooks peering southeast towards to continental divide.
This is the best view if the weather is clear enough for a view, but otherwise mostly offers intense winds striking the face with staunch, shorter trees doing their best to capture incoming gusts. The canopy overlook bridge located near Wilford Guindon Trail is closed at the time of this writing (July 20th, 2021) due to a broken cable. The only other trail of note is a bit of a dead end, Sendero Cuecha, which leads to a small waterfall.
Overall, the entire park, including every trail can be traversed in roughly four to five hours.
Hummingbird Gate
Upon leaving Monteverde, I was asked to rescan my bracelet’s bar code (given to me upon entry to ensure I left the park) and I poked my head into the Monteverde Hummingbird Gallery. With lots of the usual tourist trinkets, this gallery also displays very impressive artworks of hummingbirds. Best of all are the numerous hummingbird feeders scattered about the wooden balcony, which attract roughly twenty or thirty of the buzzing creatures, their fear of humans completely banished. I watched a sizeable crowd manage a perfectly poised photo with their phones from less than a foot away while a verdant green hummingbird dipped it’s thin beak into a feeder.
The walk back, as I mentioned, was far easier and swifter than the walk up. I was able to trot downhill swiftly, stopping briefly at the lovely little Monteverde Art House Gallery. A nice little shop, and there are several others akin to it on the road.
Uphill Hikes
The next day was something more of a miscalculation. I had found the previous hike manageable enough, even with the double addition of getting back and forth to the park on foot, so I set my early-morning sights on La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena, a slightly less notorious rainforest land to the north of Santa Elena’s Downtown. Google Maps warned of a hour and forty minute hike, but I was fairly confident after my previous day.
I shouldn’t have been.
Waking up before the sun rose, I embarked again on my hike, leaving Santa Elena in an uphill manner along Route 606. And then I turned upon a muddy dirt road, in an uphill manner. Before pausing on a new hill. Before bending over gasping on another. Before munching an apple between shallow breathes on yet another rise.
Aside from three level areas and three downhill breaks, the entire route to La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena is practically uphill the entire way, often demanding extremely steep rises. It took me a full two and a half hours of walking to reach the park’s entrance, at which point I rested outside eating bread chips for a full half hour before feeling sturdy enough to head inside.
That being said, once I was in, La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena is far superior to Monteverde (in my opinion). I had a grand time once inside.
Entering Santa Elena Forest Reserve
The trails of this cloud forest share many things in common with Monteverde. The endless, restless rustle of wind buffeted trees, the distinct, plopping drops of rain and a brilliant, nearly searing green. However, this reserve is much older with far more ancient trees.
This is vital for several reasons. First, there are absolute goliath trees sequestered in this park, crowded and crammed with every type of vertical vegetation imaginable. Indeed, in some cases, there are parasitic ficus trees thick as my arms growing up the sides of these most ancient of woods.
Secondly, these overhanging monstrosities create dense shade patches, meaning that this forest undergrowth is not nearly as dense as Monteverde. It is far easier to peer deeper into the jungle. I was able to spot dozens of birds that ran along the ground, something that may have been an anteater rustling in the distance, a group of coati bounding away and extremely bright crawling insects, such as yellow centipedes and a neon-green beetle.
The clouds that shrouded Monteverde add distinct, ghostly shapes here, marching between branches as specters, nearly unaffected by the intense wind high above. Where these giant trees grow, the ground dips and moisture gathers. There were moments I could see my breath gushing out, heavy in the moisture-laden air.
Finally, these huge trees are so caked in plants that my usual sense of direction (which I consider quite good and rely on regularly) was completely thwarted. If not for the trail, I would have been swallowed by the interior of the mountain jungles instantly.
Trails of Santa Elena
Even better than the scenery is the challenge of the trail itself. Monteverde is a challenge in places to be sure, but nothing compared to the hodgepodge of toeholds that Boseque Nuboso Santa Elena offers. Often the trail is a carefully laid board, slick with moss circumventing a mud puddle old as some of the trees. These puddles are deceptively stable from the dense leaves cresting it’s surface, but will swallow a foot in mud without effort.
Other times, the trail is a series of roots, haphazardly making curvy steps that only half a foot can gain purchase. In other areas, the trail is clear and sturdy, the trunks of trees cut into platforms like flat stones stacked on a low river.
But there are other moments where the trail has not reached any level of engineered assistance yet, and I found myself often slipping on mud or otherwise leaving painfully clear Scooby-Doo styled footprints in the earth, each rapidly filled with seeping water.
To be clear, these trails are very well-maintained, but much more closely tied to the land than anywhere else I’ve hiked in recent memory.
This hike was a wonderful challenge. I took the longest route, which kept me occupied for about 5 hours total. I didn’t meet another soul during this entire trip. I would say I preferred Santa Elena to Monteverde my several orders of magnitude.
Bus Manifestation
At this point, I was utterly battered from my hike. I doubt I would have been able to return in any sort of timely manner by walking, and asked if a bus was available for the ride back.
Apparently, there are two shuttles a day, one that returns at 11 AM and the other which returns at 4 PM. From Santa Elena downtown to the park and back, this costs 4,000 Colon. However, since I was opting for one direction, I only had to pay an easy 2,000.
Buses are not guaranteed. They only arrive and wait if they’ve brought a sizeable crowd (6 to 12 people) up to the park in the first place. I missed the 11 AM shuttle-bus by several hours and got extremely lucky nabbing the 4 PM one.
I spent my final night in Santa Elena Downtown recuperating and playing around on my phone.
A Return to San José
The only bus I found after an ill-advised nap back to San José was once again on the cusp of dawn, 5:30 AM. I purchased a ticket online for roughly $6 USD and settled into a swift, well-earned sleep.
The ride back was uncomfortable, but I’ve returned to San José and wandered the downtown area for a small bit of coffee. Quickly blasted by an incoming rain shower (as is typical of Costa Rica in July) the only place I’ve visited of any note since I got back is Parque Metropolitano La Sabana, the enormous greenspace located on the eastern portion of San José.
It’s not terribly impressive, but it’s nice enough to walk around. There are some wooden statues of birds and totems that are interesting enough and blooming lilies in the water that vibrate in the wind, making the flowers appear like they’re on a time-lag.
As I write this, I’m hashing out the details for my next ill-advised trip in Costa Rica. I am firmly not a fan of San José for recreational or living purposes, and desperately wish to see more of the country. The Cloud Forests of central Costa Rica have converted me into a fan of this land and I wish to see more of it.
So until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written July 13th 2021
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The GoPro Hero Black is my go to Action camera. I’m not comfortable bringing my cell phone to many wet and rugged locations, so the GoPro does most of my photographic heavy-lifting. The only things I bring in my GoPro kit are the camera, a spare battery and the forehead mount. I upgrade my GoPro once every two years. It was particularly excellent to have during my aquatic tour of Belize.
