There’s a national reserve far up in the mountains of Costa Rica, so close to the sky that clouds drift almost constantly through the mystical and dark rainforest. It’s called the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Getting there is not easy although Monteverde is one of the most famous places to visit in Costa Rica. The story goes that the locals were so shocked by the first tourists appearing that they successfully prevented to this day that the road there got paved. That way they tried to stem the tide of visitors which only worked to a certain degree but it means that the bus there takes 2 hours for the last 30 km alone. We must add that infrastructure is a weak point in Costa Rica in the most parts (especially during the rainy season) but we actually hope it stays like that so the country won’t be flooded with cars eventually.

Going to Monteverde means arriving in Santa Elena where the 4 hour bus drive from San Jose ends. It also means you end up in some sort of tourist hell in the middle of the most magnificent nature. Everywhere you look you see ugly houses and garish signs advertising canopy tours, river-rafting and whatnot and people accost you on the street to get you to spend some dollars. By the way, a few days after we had left we met a german expatriate who had lived near there once. She told us about the real and beautiful Monteverde which we couldn’t uncover unfortunately.

Santa Elena is a small town high up in the mountains, often cloudy and windy and also rather chilly at night. Most people there are very nice and helpful though and we found a great penthouse-like room on top of the Sleepers Sleep Cheaper Hostel. Since it was low-season we only paid around 14 € a night. The place was also spotlessly clean which was a nice change and we stayed there for three nights just to enjoy a big, comfy bed and our own kitchen and bathroom.

There was one thing in Santa Elena which was absolutely annoying though and that were the unbelievably loud quad bikes and motorcycles some of the local men obviously see as the coolest invention since sliced bread. Apparently they try to outdo each other by modifying their vehicles to be louder than everyone elses’s and they were riding around town on them from early morning to late evening.

Coming back to the actual reason we went there – the national reserve. After we had arrived in the afternoon of our first day we started real early the next morning and took the bus to the Bosque Nuboso (misty forest) at 6 a.m. To enter the forest we had to pay more than 19000 Colones which amounts to almost 14 € per person. After 6 hours of slow and quiet hiking through the forest we hadn’t seen much of the wildlife. For people who are really into the flora Monteverde certainly is great because of the huge diversity and unique plants there. For wildlife-watching you should probably book a guided tour or a nightwalk but we felt we had spent enough money with the entrance fee already.

As a resume about Monteverde we think that the entrance fee is just too high. There were only two little information boards in the whole reserve and a quarter of the trails was not accessible. Compared to Cahuita National Park this isn’t too much value for the money. In Cahuita we didn’t pay anything, there were just as much trails and rangers, a lot more information boards, benches and tables covered by roofs and even free showers and toilets at the beaches. Also there is nothing you can do in Santa Elena that doesn’t cost money and that wouldn’t smell like artificial pseudo action adventure stuff for rich tourists and we didn’t like that at all.

After our visit to the forest we just hung around in our comfy penthouse a bit longer and tried to decide where to go next. It turned out to be Montezuma.