Monteverde and Montezuma - cloud forests and beaches in Costa Rica

We crossed the border from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, and thankfully we had a quicker and easier exit to Nicaragua than when we entered! From the Costa Rican border we took three buses to get to our first destination: Monteverde. 

As soon as we crossed the border into Costa Rica we could tell we were in a different country - there was less litter, and the buses were newer and comfier. The journey from the border to Monteverde isn’t that far, but it took a long time on the buses: buses in Costa Rica are slow! The drivers are in no hurry and like to stop for long periods to chat to people, respond to WhatsApp messages, and to count money. The buses run to a schedule and generally run on time, but there are few of them, with most routes only having one or two buses a day. 

Back to our journey to Monteverde! We took a bus from the border to Liberia, waited at Liberia for 1.5 hours for our next bus, and then got dropped off at the side of a highway for our connecting bus. We had a 2.5 hour wait for our final bus into the mountains, and whilst we’re sat on the side of the road waiting an America couple pulled up in a car. The man got out and asked us for directions to Monteverde as they’d got lost. We explained we were also going to Monteverde, and that we were waiting for a bus later that day, and gave them directions on where to go. We were really hoping they would offer us a lift (it was really hot on the side of the road, and by this point we had been travelling for 7 hours), but the man got back in his car and drove off! Our bus eventually arrived, and we made it into Monteverde around 7pm - 11 hours after we set off. 

Monteverde - cloud forest:

Monteverde is a small town set high up in the mountains at 1440m above sea level. As it’s so high up, it’s relatively cool - around 20 degrees in the day and dropping below 10 degrees at night (I even wore my woolly hat one night!). The town itself is quite touristy; full of souvenir shops, expensive restaurants and tour touts. 

The main reason we came to Monteverde was to visit the cloud forest - a huge area of protected rainforest in the Tilaran mountains. The Monteverde cloud forest is home to 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity, and it’s one of only a few cloud forests remaining. We didn’t know what a cloud forest was before we visited, and we found out that it’s essentially a rainforest at high altitude (above 3000 feet), which means that a proportion of the precipitation comes from the clouds which surround it.

We spent a day in the cloud forest walking around the trails (about 8 miles in total), and walking over the hanging bridges (which are a thing in Costa Rica!). We enjoyed looking for wildlife and soaking up the eerie cloud forest vibes. We got to stand on the continental divide - the border between two watersheds, with one side flowing to the Atlantic Ocean, and the other to the Pacific Ocean. 

After walking around the cloud forest, we visited the Hummingbird cafe, who have placed hummingbird feeders around the garden so you can enjoy a coffee whilst watching them whizz around! We even saw a sleepy coati chilling on the roof!

We didn’t have too long to spend in Monteverde, but we enjoyed the views from town across Costa Rica to the Pacific Ocean. We visited a ficus tree near to the town which we were recommended to check out. We also decided to go on a night hike as it came highly recommended to us by our hostel owner. It was expensive, but we were told we would see lots of animals as 80% of species in the cloud forest are nocturnal (including snakes, frogs and tarantulas). On the night of the hike, we expected to be taken to the national park, but ended up in the tour operators garden, which we proceeded to walk around in the dark for 2 hours. We saw a few spiders, a sleeping quetzal, and a few small frogs, but overall we’re left feeling disappointed and a bit scammed out of our money! 

Before we arrived in Costa Rica, we knew to expect that it is an expensive place to visit. Everyone we had met on our travels who had been there warned us how expensive everything is, and lots of backpackers skip it altogether due to the high costs. Knowing this, we decided to visit Costa Rica anyway, but limit ourselves to just a few weeks in total. However, when we arrived we soon discovered just how ridiculously expensive everything is! For example, entry to the cloud forest national park was $25 per person (about £20), a cup of coffee is around $4 (£3.30), and a load of laundry was $15 (about £13, bearing in mind we were paying about £2 in Nicaragua). Suffice to say, we quickly decided we would need to limit the tours and national parks we would do, we bought a flask to make our own coffee, and Ash started washing all our clothes by hand in the hostel sinks!

Montezuma - beach time! 

After a few days in Monteverde, we took a bus, a ferry, and two more buses to get to our next destination in Costa Rica - Montezuma. Montezuma is a small beach village on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, on the Atlantic coast. It’s hard to get to (there is only a dirt track road learning down to the village), and this means the village has a laid back, off the beaten track vibe that we really liked. The beaches in Montezuma have white sand and are lined by jungle, and there were hardly any tourists so we mostly had them to ourselves. It was really hot in Montezuma when we were there - around 38 degrees! We were glad to have booked a room with air con!

We spent four days here in total, and enjoyed spending time sunbathing on the beach (mostly in the shade as the sun was hot and strong!) and swimming in the sea. One day we went for a hike along the coast, along a trail with the beach on one side and jungle on the other, and we saw lots of wildlife. We also hiked to a waterfall one day; it was a hot and sweaty walk, but worth it to see the waterfall (though lots of other people had the same idea as us and it was very busy!). We were sad to leave Montezuma as it was very relaxed and chilled, but with the Costa Rica prices and our budget in mind, we decided to move on!

Next step: San Jose for a quick stopover on the way to the Chirripo National Park.