Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde is around 1440m above sea level and straddles the continental divide with the Caribbean to the east and Pacific to the west. It’s possible to see how the vegetation changes when looking on each side of the divide, the Caribbean is wet and humid whilst the Pacific is drier and windier. This leads to more lush and taller vegetation on the Caribbean side. We certainly noticed the difference when going out on nature walks, on the Caribbean side there was a lot of moss and parasitic growth on the trees with denser vegetation, whilst on the pacific side the forest was less dense.

Whilst in Monterverde we headed out on a daytime guided walk (on the Caribbean side) in a local private nature reserve. We saw a typical selection of monkeys and birds, in particular we were really lucky to see a Quetzal which is the national bird of Guatemala. Whilst they thrive in these forests they’re difficult to spot so we count ourselves lucky. After this encounter we also saw some wild boar, tarantula and stick insects (which were the highlight for the children)! The walk was very atmospheric due to the nature of the forest with moss, parasitic plants (including strangler figs taking hold of trees) and the density of the jungle. We did get fairly damp on the walk, the nature of the cloud forest is that there is a very heavy mist that hangs about and works its way through your clothes, the warm temperatures make this bearable though!Read more