Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

[Jeff in St Pete]

After spending a few days at the Arenal Volcano, we drove to Monteverde and took a tour of the Cloud Forest Reserve.  The forest was not living up to its name the day we were there though, it was bright and sunny!  Monteverde was settled in the 1950's by Quakers from the United States.  It is still a very remote place to get to.    

Driving up the dirt road to Monteverde

[Jeff in St Pete]

A nice big droopy looking croton along side of the road

[Jeff in St Pete]

Before we arrived in Monteverde, we saw a sign for The Orchid Garden and decided to stop by.  We took the tour although none of the big orchids were in bloom.  The owner gave us magnifying glasses because some of the orchids in bloom were only 1" big!  

[Jeff in St Pete]

This one she called "Dracula".  If you look closely, you can see the flowers hanging upside down under the plant.

[Jeff in St Pete]

A couple more small ones

[Jeff in St Pete]

She also had a growing bromeliad collection

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

Not sure what this is...

[Jeff in St Pete]

Entering the Cloud Forest Reserve

[Jeff in St Pete]

Plants growing on every space available

[Jeff in St Pete]

Nice big tree fern in the forest

[Jeff in St Pete]

I saw a lot of these small clumping palms

[Jeff in St Pete]

The largest strangler fig in the reserve.  The host tree has long since died and rotted away leaving the inside hollow.  This tree was mammoth!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Palm along the path

[Jeff in St Pete]

A nice waterfall in the Reserve

[Jeff in St Pete]

This palm had reddish petioles

[Jeff in St Pete]

Bromeliad blooming

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

Heliconia

[Jeff in St Pete]

I kept seeing this palm with white rings on the trunk.  It's hard to get a picture of a green palm when everything around it is also green!

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

After the tour of the reserve, we stopped at a Hummingbird Gallery.  They had feeders set up all over the place and hundreds of hummers were flying about.  

[Jeff in St Pete]

A beautiful blue hummingbird with a white tail

[Jeff in St Pete]

A cool looking plant outside the reserve.  

[Jeff in St Pete]

We drove from Monteverde through Guanacaste where I saw hundreds of these palms in open fields.  It took us about 4 hours to drive back to Manuel Antonio.  

[Jeff in St Pete]

One last picture of some broms in a tree

[Jeff Searle]

Jeff

   Do you remember seeing any Zamia's growing up there?

Jeff

[Jeff in St Pete]

No sorry Jeff, I don't remember seeing any.  But, I was busy looking up into the tree canopy!

[Kris]

Dear Jeff Anderson  

lovely stills great photography and the tree ferns look stunningly tall.

thanks & love,

Kris  

[paulgila]

great shot of overlapping palm leaves in post #21,jeff.

[mppalms]

Jeff,

Fantastic photos!  I was there a few years ago, and a few things struck me:

1. There was a climbing Hydrangea with pink flowers that got some serious height.  I believe it is called Hydrangea peruviana.  It was flowering at the time and it really stood out when the sun peeked through the clouds and lit it up.  (I found a source for this same plant back in the States years ago, and it grows for me.)

2. The hummingbirds were everywhere.  Coming from a place where we rarely see anything other than Anna's, watching hummingbirds of all colors as small as bees and as large as sparrows was quite a treat.  I mean hummingbirds everywhere.

3. At the time, I didn't know much about palms but I would guess that we saw some small Geonomas based on what I now know about their leaves and habit.

Could the pic in post 8 might be a Macleania (not sure of the species)?  The flowers don't look quite right, but there are a couple of species in Monteverde.

Jason

[Mike4284m]

Did you go to Monteverde or Santa Elena?  There's something about the photos that makes me think of the latter.  Regardless, thanks for taking me back to my trip.  I feel like I may have even taken some of the same photos as you.

Were you greeted at the entrance by a coati or peccary?

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks Kris and Paul.

Hey Jason,  I did see something that looked like it had pink leaves growing up a tree.  That must have been the Hydrangea peruviana.  I never knew a climbing hydrangea existed!  Very cool.  

I know what you mean about the hummingbirds.  There were so many of them that all you could hear was them whizzing past your head constantly!  I'm sure I saw Geonoma but I just am not very familiar with some of the native palms here yet.  As I post pics and people id them for me, I find myself starting to remember some of them!

I'm not sure about Macleania.  I've never even heard of that name before but I will do a google search and check it out.  Thanks!

[Jeff in St Pete]

(Mike4284m @ Aug. 06 2007,21:43)

QUOTE

Did you go to Monteverde or Santa Elena?  There's something about the photos that makes me think of the latter.  Regardless, thanks for taking me back to my trip.  I feel like I may have even taken some of the same photos as you.

Were you greeted at the entrance by a coati or peccary?

Mike, I went to Monteverde.  We didn't get to see any coati or peccary although I saw a coati in Manuel Antonio National Park before.  Our guide at the Monteverde Reserve was really educated on the birds and animals there.  She spent a great deal of time talking about them and pointing them out.  I was more interested in the plants and palms so I kept wandering off to take pictures.  I asked her a few palm questions but she said that palms weren't her thing, and kept on yappin about the birds!  LOL