Costa Rica - We get to see Wildlife

Photo by Marina Weidner

 On our second morning in Monteverde we went to the Ecological Cloud Forest Park for a guided tour.  It was drizzly at the start of our hike but soon stopped raining and became a thoroughly enjoyable walk through this pristine, tropical, cloud forest covering 10,193 acres.   We had an excellent guide who pointed out all sorts of  plants, wildlife and trees, including an enormous strangler fig.  Along the way we spotted a variety of bugs, lizards, a tarantula in the undergrowth and a couple of venomous snakes lurking on branches overhead. Some of the trees were massive and ancient and the bush was lush, dense and aromatic.

The pathways are well marked, easy to negotiate with one track leading down to a pretty waterfall in a valley.  We enjoyed the ambiance by the waterfall and were reluctant to make our way back out of this beautiful park.   I would recommend this tour and suggest that if you have time to do only one Cloud Forest walk  do this one, that is unless the idea of the suspended bridges appeals to you.

Our happy crew and forest guide at the waterfall.  

At the exit of the trail is a humming bird sanctuary.  I had never seen these tiny, busy birds before.  What a delightful and mesmerising sight they were as they flitted about and drank nectar from hanging feeders, their emerald green feathers glistening in the sun. With wings that beat 50 times per second and the ability to fly forwards, backwards, sideways, up, down and even upside down they are a fascinating bird.

It was then time to head off to our next destination, La Fortuna.  The drive offered us magnificent vistas of verdant hills and valleys but the road was terrible, pot holed and winding with very steep downhill sections.  The last part of our drive was especially bad, a rutted, deeply pot holed gravel driveway which lead us to the tiny ferry which would carry us 40 minutes across a  man made lake to our new transport waiting on the other side.  

Right:  Clambering aboard the tiny ferry bound for La Fortuna

It was an hour and a half to our accommodation on a surprisingly excellent road. We passed the active, but quiet at the moment, Arenal volcano (1633mtrs - 5358ft) and the myriad of luxury hotels clustered near its foot.  These were the most glamorous hotels we had seen anywhere on the trip, but we weren't staying there.  Our accommodation was at the very pleasant Hotel lavas del Arenal, a bit further out of town than we had hoped to be.

Many in our group were longing to see sloths never having seen one before, me not so much because I had seen them before, nevertheless I thought it would be good to see them in the wild.  I was a bit taken aback when the next morning a guide led us through people's backyards in the middle of town searching for sloths, not at all the forested area we expected. He did find a few but they were so far up tall trees they were hard to see, fortunately he had a magnifying scope which we all used in turn  to get clear views of these slow moving, sleepy creatures. As we were ending the tour we were lucky enough to spot a baby sloth nestled in a tree close to ground. So totally cute, it made the search worthwhile.

Right at the end of the main street of La Fortuna was a grassy area where a number of large iguana were dining on fruit and vegetables left by park keepers. I suspect these large lizards had been transported to that site for the benefit of tourists. So we did get to see some of Costa Rica's famous wildlife  albeit not where we expected to see it.

La Fortuna is a pleasant enough town, although very touristy, more expensive and without the charm and culture of many of the other places we had visited on this trip. Back at our accommodation we enjoyed great hospitality and a generous barbequed meal put on by the hotel.  Plate after plate of meat, plantain, chicken, salads etc were laid before us amid an evening of great conversation.  This was one of the best meals of our trip.  At $20US each it was extremely good value.