Friday, May 22, 2009

Monteverde, Costa Rica

In Costa Rica there is a place called Monteverde, which is one of those natural paradises that you have to visit at least one time in your life before you die and I'll tell you why, but let me first tell you a bit about of its history.

Monteverde is a small town located in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, it was first inhabited by a few Costa Rican families who lived from agriculture. During the 1950s a group of Quakers migrated from Alabama to Costa Rica, they bought about 1500 hectares which they divided among the families. They were very concerned about nature, so they saved a part of the land to preserve nature, this piece of land is known today as The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

The Monteverde reserve is one of the most amazing wildlife sanctuaries in Costa Rica and in the American continent, it includes eight distinct ecological zones and it protects more than 400 species of birds and over 100 species of mammals. You can find here the endangered Bellbird, the Resplendent Quetzal, the Emerald Toucanet and 30 species of hummingbirds.

Being

The families that established in Monteverde during the 1950s initially lived from agriculture, they created a cheese factory called Monteverde, which cheese is sold all around the country. But also, several years ago they started living from Ecoturism, right now Monteverde is one of the most popular places visited by tourist from all over the world.

In Monteverde there are many different Eco-friendly tours that you can choose from. The most popular ones are walking through the hanging bridges, which is like walking on top of the rain forest, it is an amazing experience. In addition to this you can take tours to do canopy, sky trek, bird watching and night walking, a tour that allows you to see the wildlife during the night.



You can find a lot of different type of restaurants in Monteverde, the customer service is always great, people treat you very respectfully and very friendly and of course the food is to die for.

I went to Monteverde for a couple of days last year during my honeymoon, we had a great time, we took the hanging bridges tour and we went to see the hummingbirds, it was an amazing experience, you can really get in touch with nature and you get the feeling that you are walking on trees.

If you have a chance to visit Monteverde in Costa Rica, don't miss it, you won't regret it!

Monteverde