Day 2: Monteverde Cloud Forest & Curi Cancha NP
When our guide picked us up for the first 3h drive day we wanted to pass by somewhere first to have breakfast. And he knew the best places – roadside restaurant of the buffet type where you can choose what to get and you can get only just fruit if you so desire, or a full-blown brunch. We, ofc, went for the latter 😀 And as much as I always say I have no breakfast usually, it is also hard to control myself knowing that I may or may not have another chance for many hours AND on top of that, I see all these super delicious cooked meals and I just cannot say no to. Not only that, but I filled my plates to the brim and ofc didn’t finish them.. surprise surprise. They seem to eat a lot of rice with black beans, this is what our guide ate every day plus some meat and some other extras. This beans and rice meal is called Gallo Pinto. I always tried to eat as fast as possible and then went outside of the restaurant to watch for birds while the rest were finishing up. Also because sometimes I’d want a bit of a me-time, just to observe and let the scenery sink in.
The road towards the Monteverde Cloud Forest was about 3h and went through such beautiful scenery crossing mountains and seeing the fog in between the jungle trees. This view has always mesmerized me, I couldn’t stop trying to take pictures knowing none of them will be successful, but that didn’t make me stop trying. Anyway, we asked the guide to stop somewhere on the side of the road so we can take in the scenery and take a few proper photos. So he found a nice spot, it was also nice to stretch our legs a bit. And there were vultures flying over, which, of course, made me super excited 😀 So eventually we arrived at Curi Cancha, it is basically Monteverde, but more at the base of the mountain, but still we read that this is an excellent spot for birding and so we planned to be there early to catch the morning bird hustle. We spent there maybe 2-3h, slowly walking around, there was one of these gorgeous jungle trees, the Kapok tree with roots giant like walls and on the other side of the tree, you could even kind of go into it as if you go into a cave. We strolled around the jungle, explored the rose garden and found a nice pond area where I observed some birds flying around. Then, as we walked, there was a bush with flowers and I thought I saw a hummingbird. I got sooo excited and then realized that.. it’s FULL of hummingbirds, OMG! It was THE BEST. I found a hummingbird sitting on a branch soo close to me, I managed to make the best hummingbird photos in the world! Just LOOK AT THIS!
At the entrance of Curi Cancha they drew a nice path for us to walk on the map (below) so we can see the whole part and highlighted that the Puma Trail is the steepest but also most scenic and with chances to see maybe some Quetzals so I was very eager to go there, however we didn’t have enough time, our pace was rather slow, as we wanted to enjoy it and eventually we only did the Jardin, then continued on road 3 (Alondra). The Alondra trail, particularly after that big Tree shown on the photo right after the Jardin, above it there’s a little bench icon, right before that bench were the bushes where I saw all the hummingbirds. I saw at least 2-3 different species of hummingbirds there that I took pictures of. I was so excited that I spent quite some time, it was my first time properly seeing hummingbirds and I was waay too excited, forgot about quetzals and all. Eventually, we continued along the Alondra trail and we turned left on path 5 (Leo). We reached the Mirador viewpoint and then Rad decided to go back to the rest area (next to the Labyrinth) where Toni was, and I took left to proceed towards the other part of the Leo trail as I hate doing a path twice, especially if it’s a new place i’m exploring. So I continued and turned right and was walking towards the rest area too, but then as I was passing close to the green marked area – it looked form the distance as if there’s a rest ara there too, but you couldn’t see anything else. It’d be super easy to miss it. But i thought, “Let me quickly take a look”. OMG and I DIED! It was FULL, literally FULL of all sorts of collibris! I remember almost wanting to scream of excitement. I took my camera out and just couldn’t stop taking pictures, all sorts of birds – tiny, bigger, even bigger, all hummingbirds, but there were maybe 6-7 feeders and they were ALL occupied by birds, it was AMAZING! I think I spent 15 min there, I was in a rush because I didn’t know if they would look for me and we had other plans etc, so i had to rush which i did NOT enjoy, but it was a bit self-inflicted rush. When I found them, they weren’t so much in a rush, although ofc we wanted to have enough time for the suspended bridges of Monteverde which was the main thing we were going there for. So we went to Monteverde next.
It is an important nature reserve, rich in biodiversity. Back in 1972, scientist George Powell became concerned about deforestation and hunting in Monteverde and joined forces with local Quaker Wilford Guindon to establish a nature reserve with the Tropical Science Center. Starting with 328 hectares of donated land, the reserve grew with support from donors and conservation organizations. A 1977 BBC documentary brought international attention to Monteverde’s cloud forests. Along with organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Nature Conservancy, and BirdLife International, it expanded and now protects 10,500 hectares of forest!
When we walked the Heart of the Forest trail towards the suspended bridge, we really enjoyed the rich vegetation. I walked behind them or way ahead of them to try and record a little bit of the forest for a soundscape. I also wanted to enjoy the scenery on my own and build a memory, so I would stop and just stare at the trees, and listen, and let everything around me sink in.. and then a group of people would come.. and ruin it all 😀 Well.. too bad. The bridge was suuper awesome. We also saw a poor little creature, a coati, which came down a tree and we stood still, it headed right in front of me and passed by me super close, like 30 cm distance or so, but it was hurt and couldn’t step on his front left paw 🙁 I hope it has healed since then, but in any case, it managed to get down and up the trees, so I hope it will survive. We also saw agouti. Sort of a capybara cousin 😀 or so it looks like. Suuper cute creature.