Jeep-boat-jeep
Monteverde, like Volcano Arenal, is one of Costa Rica’s top tourist attractions. Though only 15km away as the crow flies, it takes a disappointing six hours to reach by road. Well, there’s a big lake in the way, after all. Strictly speaking, I guess Lake Arenal is actually a reservoir - a dam was added in 1979 to expand the existing lake to three times its original size.
We tourists are a often money-rich, time-poor bunch, so it’s no surprise to see enterprising tour operators solving the problem of the six hour journey. The so-called jeep-boat-jeep is a quicker way to make the trip: a jeep (actually a minibus) to the lake, a boat across it, and a 4x4 from the other side of the lake to Monteverde.
The bumpy road from the lake up to Monteverde was easily navigated in a 4x4, though at one point, as the road passed through a little village, we had to slow for speedbumps - even though we couldn’t get above walking pace anyway. It was a nice touch. Overall the JBJ turns a six hour bus ride into a pleasant, scenic two hour journey.
When tourists speak of Monteverde, they’re usually talking about the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde, a private cloudforest reserve. The reserve gives people an opportunity to walk though unspoilt primary and secondary cloudforest. It’s a beautiful, if busy, place, and a surprisingly good place to spot wildlife. Instinctively, you might think that a forest full of guided tour-groups would make it difficult to spot wildlife - actually that isn’t wholly true. While the noise of all the visitors undoubtedly scares many animals and birds away, the tour guides all help each other, shouting and whistling to each other when they spot something. Despite all the visitors, we were able to get good sitings of Quetzal (possibly #1 on many peoples lists of birds they want to spot in Costa Rica), some monkeys, a viper (possibly this one), the Three Wattled Bell Bird, with its distinctive, metallic call, a group of monkeys, a forest hawk and a trogon.
A short distance away, the reserve at Santa Elena offers a contrasting cloudforest experience. To the untrained eye (that’s me), the forests look similar. Actually there are some crucial differences, as they sit on opposite sides of the continental divide and they have quite different histories. Nevertheless, the real differences in the experience of visiting stem from the number of visitors. While at Monteverde tour groups flood in and the paths are pretty busy, at Santa Elena I walked through the forest for four hours and saw three people. At Santa Elena you feel like you’re walking through the rainforest – the paths are muddy and rutted, the forest dense and disorientating. At Monteverde, it’s more like a walk in the park – the paths are wide and well-maintained, the forest more airy and open. I’m over exaggerating the differences, of course, but if I could only go back to one, it would be Santa Elena. It’s a shame that more people don’t visit it, and at the same time, that’s what creates its charm.
Here are the pictures from Santa Elena. Here’s Monteverde.
