Costa Rica - Monteverde

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Left Manual Antonio for Monteverde, another popular tourist destination famous for its cloud forests. The drive took about 4 hours and toward the end became very mountainous with tristing and winding roads, often too narrow for my liking. The hot and humid nature of the coast transformed into a cooler, very windy area often shrouded in mist or light rain. The elevation is over 5000 feet so you are literally in the clouds. First on the agenda was the famous hanging or suspended bridges. Located at Selvatura Park, the treetop walkways hanging bridges is a 3 km hike through the Monteverde cloud forest. You are basically walking on 8 suspended bridges about 100 feet above the ground seing the unique fauna and flora from that perspective. You see some incredible views of the forest. The route takes about 2 hours at a leisurely pace. Also on site is a hummingbird garden as well as the largest live butterfly exhibition in Latin America. Despite this claim, the butterflies were not overly abundant; perhaps in part due to the immense size of the enclosed garden. The park was a wonderful day outing. The next day we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. An extremely rich ecosystem, it includes over 800 species of epiphytes. The environment was similar to the day before except the many trails were on the ground with one hanging bridge. We hiked several trails to various observation points and of course were immersed in the incredible vegetation associated with the cloud forest. One short trail of a km in length took you to a nice waterfall. Another nice day in nature.

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Photos

One of eight hanging bridges
Selvatura Park

Our Favorite SPODA in Monteverde
Tradititional Costa Rican fare