Costa Rica - Monteverde - Day 4

Our morning began with a 2.5 hour guided hike through Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Near the beginning of our tour, we were lucky enough to see capuchin monkeys and both male and female of the elusive quetzal birds. Our guide told us that the quetzals hover like hummingbirds and eat wild avocados whole. We heard before we saw the guan bird. It looks like a peacock without the fancy tail feathers; and, the guan makes a sound like a machine gun rattle. 

We saw several epiphytes on our hike - from tree ferns to the bird's nest fern that grows around the tree to an entire branch that had fallen from the canopy because of the weight of the epiphytes growing on it. On part of a tree branch that had fallen, the guide pointed out that there were no rings! Since there are no seasons at Monteverde, the trees do not develop rings.

However, my favorite tree in Costa Rica was the strangler fig. It starts growing on top of a tree, sends it's roots down the tree trunk to the ground to steal all the tree's nutrients and eventually kills the host tree. Once the host tree rots away, the strangler fig looks like a hollow jack-o-lantern.

Cost was $18/person park entrance + $27/person for guide. Somewhere between the two, our shuttle from the hotel was covered.

We spent our final afternoon in Monteverde touring Don Juan's Coffee. It was a wonderful tour of how coffee is grown and processed, with much free coffee before and after the tour. In addition, we learned about sugarcane and cocao and even made sugarcane juice and chocolate. Cost of $30/person.