Monteverde, August 26 2008

It was a longer hike than I thought it would be, and I had forgotten the way, since I haven''t been here in fourteen years, so I turned down the wrong road.  It seemed peculiar because I was suddenly walking downhill, when I distinctly recalled that the road goes uphill to the cloud forest.  But it was quiet, without traffic, and there were pastures with cattle, and woods on either side of the road, the odd house.  I saw several Morpho butterflies.  (see image below hummingbirds.) They are huge, with a wingspan like that of a medium size songbird.  When the road came to a dead end I retraced the mile or so that I'd walked and found my way back onto the main road.  As the road ascended higher the forest became thick, lush and tangled with many ferns and tree ferns, and the air was noticeably cooler and moister.After what must have been a good five miles or more of walking, including the detour, I found my way to the entrance of the cloud forest where there is also a hummingbird gallery.  This is a gift shop and cafe with hummingbird feeders on the patio, and dozens of hummingbirds representing some seven different species.  I will download some images to give you an idea.   The hummingbirds are incredibly fast, pugnatious and fearless.   Often fighting with each other.  Think of a classroom full of grade 8 boys.  So, this is their soup kitchen and I was once again transfixed as I gazed at these iridescent wonders.  I had lunch in the cafe, which has a view of the hummingbirds, then I went into the Cloud Forest.  The entrance fee is $15 US.  During my first visit here I was told by some of the local Quakers that they had to persuade the local Ticos to preserve the cloud forest as they wanted to continue clearing land for pasture.  Eventually the idea stuck, and Costa Rica just may owe its industry of eco-tourism at least in part to their legacy.  Monteverde, by the way, was settled by a group of American Quakers in the fifties, as they wanted to live in a country that didn't have a military.  They were very present when I was here in the nineties but I don't seem to notice them now.  Well, I have a few days to find out. The Cloud Forest is huge.  It began to rain, so I lifted my huge golf umbrella, which at times became a nuisance with the overhanging leaves and branches on the narrow trails.  The tangle and abundance and sheer diversity of growth here cannot be described and I'm not going to try here.  I eventually got lost as I took treacherous steps up, made up of concrete tiles, many of them coming loose in the mud.  i must have spent almost two hours in there.  Eventually I ran into a young couple from New York and we found our way out together.  They seem very nice and it was an enjoyable conversation along the way, which incidentally, is one of the things I enjoy about travelling.  I was sore all over (still am) and exhausted by the time I returned to the hummingbird cafe for another cold drink and a rest.  Even though my ankle was starting to hurt I was going to try to walk all the way back to my hotel.  About a mile or so later, a couple in a four whjeel drive stopped to give me a lift.  It turned out to be the young man who owns the cafe I had just been sitting in with his family and his girlfriend, who was driving.  It was a lovely show of kindness.  I will probably take things a bit easier tomorrow, but I still plan to get out and around.