Cloud Forest Adventure & Car Trouble

Enjoyed coffee in bed this morning watching the wind howling, trees shaking and birds clutching on for dear life. As we left the wind settled, and it was a short drive to “Stella’s”. The guide book mentioned seeing birds from the garden, but given it was around 9am, not really any birds but the forest foraged omelettes, fruit bowls and smoothies in the beautiful gardens were lovely nonetheless.

We then enjoyed a 5.6 mile hike around Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological
preserve. A pretty special place, given the rare occurrence of subtropical mountainous environments, where the atmospheric conditions produce a consistent cover of clouds. We noticed an abundance of flora and fauna, different shades of moss, leaves and vines; and air was misty yet fresh (the cool climate more akin to the UK than the other places we have visited due to altitude). This park was beautiful. Not much during the daytime on the wildlife front, some millepedes and beautiful slate throated redstart birds (blue/yellow with small red mohicans).

Coffee and cake at the cafe to refuel, then on the way out we took a walk through the hummingbird garden. This was incredible and made our day! So many hummingbirds darting around feeding on the sugar water bottles dangling above, their wings beating so fast the sounded like small buzzing engines zooming past our ears. Difficult to pull ourselves away - the blue and green hummingbirds were mesmerising, but we did eventually go for a wander around the bustling small town in St Elena.

We went back to the treehouse to rest a while. Due to more than half of Monteverde’s wildlife being nocturnal we opted for a night tour, and headed out for a 6pm start excited to see the rainforest come alive. Unfortunately disaster struck and our beloved Hyundai Venu wouldn’t start! A dreaded “ESC” warning light and a call to the breakdown. Our lovely friend at restaurant let us use his phone, so we opted to have a few beers there and wait for the outcome…

Just over 2 hours, (7 beers, 2 wines and various sharing starters) later Dom got a call from the company, who were outside. They worked some battery magic and the car was hopefully fixed by 8.30…. Then some more celebratory beers! Still had a lovely evening despite not quite going to plan! Czytaj więcej