5
Easy
The Santa Elena Cloud Forest is at 1600 meters (5250 feet) above sea level, and it has 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) of well-kept paths with great outlooks and magical scenery.
It is run privately by the Santa Elena Technical Professional High School and preserves more than 300 hectares (741 acres) of the forest. Santa Elena Reserve is less crowded than Monteverde Reserve, and it will give you a great chance to experience the cloud forest at its best.
The tour
The Santa Elena Cloud Forest Hike will start as you get picked up at your hotel. You will notice that the way into the Santa Elena section of Monteverde there is a dirt road, usually in good conditions. However on rainy days, and in complete safety it will be a part of the adventure. The landscapes are quite lovely and the surroundings of the road are so lusciously green that they seem to shine.
As you arrive in the reserve and while your tour guide pays for the entrance fees, you will have time to get ready, go to restrooms and prepare for The Santa Elena Cloud Forest Hike.
As you start walking you will notice that this forest is damper than the rest of Monteverde. It gets the winds loaded with water from the Caribbean, and there is so much moss covering all that even on sunny days you will feel the humidity.
As you stroll on the easy trails, your tour guide will be giving you all the natural history of this amazing preserve. Describing plants, interrelations, diversity. You will also be able to see more wildlife. In this park there are three species of monkeys, two-toed sloths, white-nosed coatimundis, peccaries, and in terms of birds you may find the Resplendent Quetzal, the Three-wattle bellbird and some of the 26 species of hummingbirds that live in this forests.
This is a magical hike, even if you are excited about seeing the wildlife, we recommend you to take it all in. Give yourself the time to drink the beauty of the vines dangling, the thick and wet moss, the drops falling from every leaf point. Use your senses and enjoy this breathtaking Santa Elena Cloud Forest Hike.
Easy
