April 20 – 21, 2018
We drove through the hills of Costa Rica towards Monteverde. The area has a high population of Quakers. Apparently a group of Quakers had been jailed in the US for refusing to fight in the Korean war. When they were freed, they started looking for a new place to live. They considered Canada, among a number of other countries, and finally decided on Costa Rica, partly due to the fact that Costa Rica had abolished it’s own army in 1948. The Quakers began cultivating the land and started dairy farms, but also wisely put aside a section of land for conservation. That land, today, is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.
On our way to Monteverde we stopped in at a coffee finca to restock our coffee supply, then at a dairy where we we bought a couple of nice pieces of cheese and a couple of ice cream cones. There we met a fellow overlander, a man from Ontario that has spent 3 to 4 months each year for a number of years, driving around Central America in his Toyota with double roof top tents. (1 for his visitors)
We were not sure where we were going to stay for the night, and after an early dinner and checking out of few of the “boondocking” (unofficial campsites) that were available, we settled in for the evening in front of an old bull ring near town that had some nice flat parking.
The next morning we were at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve early to start our hike, hoping to spot the elusive Quetzal bird. The park (and Costa Rica in general) is very expensive, about US$40 for the two of us to enter, so we decided that we would not hire a guide. As a result, we saw lots of nice trees, flowers, and clouds, but didn’t see too much in the way of birds. It was still a beautiful place to spend a few hours hiking.
The trees in cloud forests support hundreds of other plant species….bromeliads, ferns, vines, epiphytes…as well as provide homes for insects, birds, reptiles and mammals.
This bridge was suspended maybe 50 metres above the valley floor, allowing us to walk among the tree tops.
This fern on the valley floor was maybe 3 metres in diameter.
Clouds in the the cloud forest….
One of our few wildlife encounters in the preserve.
From here we headed back to the Pacific Ocean to the Nicoya Peninsula. The drive took us through some beautiful countryside. 
Up next, surfing lessons in the town of Samara!