Waterfalls, Wildlife, And Cloud Forests, Oh My!

Day #1

After a short but sweet coffee tour experience at Britt Coffee Tours, we drove to the town of Monte Verde, Costa Rica. Boasting mountain ranges, cloud forests, and wildlife, Monte Verde is a hotspot for ecotourism. Most of our first day was spend on the road from San Juan to Monteverde. The drive proceeded slowly, largely due to super slow speed limits maxing out at 40-60 kph.

Soda De Carmencita

Along the way, we stopped for a snack at Soda De Carmencita. Costa Rican “sodas” are family owned and operated local restaurants, and there is usually at least one in each town. Sodas serve “typico” food usually including rice, beans, meat and plantains. Sodas often serve delicious refreshing juices rather than water. Affordable homemade food served in (usually open-air) casual environments that facilitate mingling with locals makes dining at sodas a fun and attractive option for visitors.

The family operating Soda De Carmencita was very patient as we struggled in Spanish. In the end we successfully ordered juices of soursop, passion fruit, and lemon with mint along with tortillas with beef and sausage as well as an empanada. All of this food and drink cost $18 USD total.

Monteverde Brewing Company

Finally made it to Monteverde! The winding hilly roads made us all a bit carsick, but not enough to make us miss a local brewery. We sampled a flight at Monteverde Brewing Company, and all were surprisingly good!

Monteverde Night Wildlife Nature Walk

Nighttime wildlife spotting tours are a can’t-miss activity in Monteverde. If the idea of wandering in pitch-black darkness in a forest surrounded by invisible wildlife that may or not may not be poisonous, venomous, or otherwise toxic sounds dangerous — it kind of is, but minimally so with the proper guide! This night wildlife nature tour was one of my favorite activities of the entire Costa Rica trip and I’d do it again.

We reported to the Monteverde Wildlife Refuge at 5:30pm for our nighttime wildlife walk with Nasua tours. Our guide, Oscar, led us through the dark forest for two hours. We spotted a green Emerald toucan (the smallest toucan species in Costa Rica), a keel-billed toucan (the second largest toucan in Costa Rica), two side-striped pit vipers, a mother howler monkey snuggling her two babies, a sloth hanging out way up in the trees, and an entire colony of ants  swarming across our hiking path either retreating from or successfully raiding another ant colony. It was amazing how easily the guide could spot an animal camouflaged into its surroundings. Oscar would stop walking and magically locate a hidden treasure despite the darkness around us. He’d then set up a telescope and spotlight for us, without which we’d be hopeless to see anything at all. He even helped us take some amazing photos during the tour.

Wildlife tours are one of those activities where it’s definitely worth it to have a local guide. Their eyes and ears are just so attuned to the surrounding forest and I’m so glad we experienced this guided night nature walk.

Hotel Casa Del Carmen Monteverde

We stayed the night in the town of Monteverde, at Hotel Casa Del Carmen Monteverde. During the dry season from December to April, Monteverde is known to have less rainfall but a ton more wind. We definitely experienced the wind during our stay here. It was howling all night long, seemingly whipping the hotel walls and rattling the metal roof.

The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary hotel breakfast of rice and beans, toast, fried egg over-easy, and coffee.

Day #2

Cascades El Tigre

We started the day early to hike Cascades El Tigre. As with most popular scenic hikes, starting early gives you much better chances at a parking spot and uncrowded photos. Cascades El Tigre charges an entry fee of $30 USD per person. While the signs mark the hike as 5 miles (8km) round trip, the actual circuit is much shorter. The trail visits 8-10 waterfalls and several hanging bridges. Advanced registration through the website is recommended. You can choose the “Big Hike” or the “Full Package.” The Big Hike option means a hike downhill to see the sights followed by a hike back uphill to complete the loop. The sneaky thing is the return hike is advertised as a very steep 3km (1.9 miles) slog uphill, but it is actually only about half that distance. The Full Package is the same downhill scenic hike, followed by either a short horseback ride or trip in a 4×4 vehicle to get back uphill. Either option is great and offers the same wonderful scenic waterfall views, but just know the uphill return hike is not as long as they say it is.

The hike to the waterfalls is a pretty steep downhill, so go slow to protect your knees. We wore Chacos sandals but saw most other people in hiking boots or trail runners. Our visit occurred during dry season in January but it was still misting lightly in the morning. The trail can easily get muddy and slippery, with lots of sharp rocks to land on, so if it’s raining I would recommend non-sandal shoes simply to prevent your foot from sliding around within the sandal and causing you to slip. We did fine on our trek but we were lucky it didn’t decide to rain harder.

El Tigre’s waterfalls are stunning and the view-to-effort ratio of this hike is very high. The first two falls you see are baby falls, still beautiful but not too grand. After these two, you come across the four main waterfalls. The first and fourth of these have accessible pools to take a dip in, but the water is cold! My favorite was the first big waterfall as you can get as close as you want to the actual falls, look up squinting through the mist, and hear the water roar in echoes around you as the sound bounces off the depressed canyon area the falls are nestled in. The hike to the fourth waterfall is a very steep uphill climb. I’d still recommend going for it and being rewarded with a panoramic yet up close view of a wall of various waterfalls!

The hanging bridges scattered throughout this hike are fun, very wobbly, and narrow. Most bridges accommodate only one person at a time. There are four emergency help stations, each equipped with a walkie talkie to communicate with staff as needed.

After completing the one-way endpoint and reaching the lowest elevation point of the trek, you have a few options to get yourself back up to the trailhead as referenced by the two options of “Full Package” vs “The Big Hike.” You can ride an ATV, ride a horse, or hike up yourself. A horse ride needs to be booked in advance (as late as the time of check-in on the day of the hike), but an ATV ride can be decided upon last minute– meaning you can hike all the way to the ATV station at the end and assess your stamina there. It seemed that haggling was acceptable, because at the time of our visit the ATV ride was supposed to cost $23 per person, but when we arrived we were told they would also accept $23 for all three of us if we wanted to pay for a ride.

We chose The Big Hike option, which meant the uphill return trip was a hike on foot rather than a ride on a horse or ATV. Remember, the uphill hike is actually only half of the advertised distance of 3km so don’t be discouraged! The difficulty of the uphill climb was not bad, but it wasn’t very scenic and certain parts are exposed to the Costa Rican sun (keep this in mind as it’ll likely be afternoon by the time you’re at this part of the hike). I’d recommend opting for the ATV if there has been recent rainfall, as the last bit of the uphill slog is steep, very muddy, and mixed with horse poop. In dry conditions, the Big Hike option is just fine.

Hikers are welcomed to enjoy a variety of tea and juices after completing the trek. The beverages were extra refreshing after the physical effort.

Dona Mayra

Our post-hike lunch was at a mom and pop restaurant. We were intrigued by their “Comida China” and tried the Costa Rican version of fried rice, as well as a couple casados. Casado is a rich meal of rice and beans, plantain, salad, and meat that traditionally fueled the physically laboring working class of Costa Rica but is now a beloved and popular part of most restaurants’ menus. We tried the fried fish and stewed chicken casados.

Belmar Brewing Company

This cute brewery offered a very Costa Rican atmosphere with outdoor seating overlooking a pond surrounded by gigantic monstera plants. They host live music and brew their beers with natural spring water from the Monteverde cloud forests.

Day #3

Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve

After refueling the next day with breakfast at the hotel, we drove to the Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena, of the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve.

What’s a cloud forest? A cloud forest has frequent low-level cloud cover causing nearly 100% humidity throughout the year and is usually located in a low area between two higher mountainous regions. Here, settling clouds deposit moisture that is retained in these high-elevation forests, nourishing abundant mosses, ferns, epiphytes, and trees in addition to the wildlife that calls this environment home. The mist that bathes the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve amounts to 12 feet of rain each year!

The more popular (read: crowded) cloud forest in the Monteverde area is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, but the Santa Elena Cloud Forest may be the one to visit for a more peaceful experience. The Santa Elena Cloud Forest actually sits at a higher elevation than its Monteverde Cloud Forest cousin, and higher elevation often translates to more clouds. This is a good thing in a cloud forest! More fog, more mist, more cloud. More clouds and less crowds meant this cloud forest was the one we chose to visit during our time here.

The night prior to and the morning of our visit to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve there was a bit of light rain, so we were nervous that we might need a 4×4 vehicle due to reports of the rough road leading to the cloud forest, but we made it in our rental Toyota Corolla Cross! We proceeded very slowly on the steep inclines and declines and managed to navigate around (most of) the potholes.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve really did feel more secluded than what I imagine the Monteverde Cloud Forest would have been. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve and only passed a few small groups during our time there. We arrived around 8:45am and the parking lot was filling up by the time we left around 11:00am.

Entrance to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve cost $12.00 for students and $18.00 for adults at the time of our visit in January 2024. The Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve is run by Santa Elena community high school, the Professional Technical School of Santa Elena. Proceeds from the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve go toward the maintenance and preservation of the cloud forest as well as toward educational goals for the schools of Monteverde.

At the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, you can choose from 4 trails:

• Mundo Joven – 0.3 mi (0.5 km); a short and easy paved trail that connects with the other trails
• Youth Challenge – 0.9 mi (1.4 km); a moderately challenging steep hike that visits two scenic lookout viewpoints with a view of Arenal Volcano on sunny days
• Del Bajo – 1.6 mi (2.6 km); an easier trail through the cloud forest with rivers and bridges
• Encantado – 2.1 mi (3.4 km); a peaceful forest walk through misty trees. Beautiful but can be muddy
• Cano Negro – 3 mi (4.8 km); the longest hike that’s made longer as it can only be reached via other trails first. Traverses bridges and forest with views of Arenal Volcano on clear days

The trails interconnect so you can easily combine multiple options. We were short on time and it was sprinkling so we opted for the Encantado trail. There is a “long way” option at the end of the loop that the information center described as “more natural” and it turned out to be less maintained and more muddy. To us, the foliage was just as good on the initial “shorter” way compared to the “long way,” so don’t feel bad if you have to miss the “long way.”

It actually rained the whole time we were in the cloud forest, but the canopy of trees filtered the rainfall so we only felt a misting drizzle. The constant sound of rain plopping on fat sweeping leaves, the squelch of muddy rocks underfoot, and the occasional musical call of birds and unseen monkeys surrounded us. It was just so green all around. Watery mist collected everywhere, on our bare feet, hands, and faces.