Monteverde Institute

This morning we visited the Monteverde Institute to learn about the history of Monteverde and get our hands dirty helping with the re-forestation program. Monteverde was founded by North American Quakers in 1951 and since then has been run on a collaberative, community basis. It is a very unique place. Scientists and biologists started to take an interest in the 1960s and the direction of Monteverde’s development changed. The cloud forest is now a protected area and contains approximately 2.5% of the world’s bio-diversity with 400 bird species, 100 mammal species, 160 reptile and amphibian species, 500 orchids and 750 tree species. Just incredible!

The Institute is running a volunteer program to re-forest a corridor for wildlife between the Pacific Coast and Monteverde. It is the wrong time of year to plant trees so our task was to fill pots ready for planting and to clean up pine needles and debris from young saplings. We worked for the best part of two hours and prepared 200 new pots. A very satisfying morning’s work.

We were given light refreshments before taking a walk through the adjacent forest to a good viewing spot. En route we encountered a very large column of leaf cutter ants and saw their nest which was huge, measuring several metres across.

The day was hot but the air was hazy so we were unable to see as far as we would have liked.

We returned to the Institute for a talk and were given a very tasty lunch of rice with chicken, salad and ice-cream. Interestingly, the young lady delivering the talk told us that it was her grandparents who were among the founder Quakers of Monteverde.

Three of us then decided it would be interesting to visit the bat caves a short walk down the road. This turned out to be a very underwhelming experience. There were several species of bats behind a 30 foot long pane of glass. Occasionally they left their roosts to feed on fruit but it was not the eco-experience we had hoped for. The best thing was the owner’s adorable 8 week old puppy!

We returned to the hotel and I arranged a back massage which was great and much needed after so much walking uphill with a backpack and camera round my neck. I feel much more relaxed now and less stiff. As I left the spa an agouti was standing on the grass just feet away from me. Annoyingly, I had neither my phone or camera with me. However, when I reached my room there was an emerald toucanet in the tree just outside and he did gave me time to dash in and grab my camera.

This was our last night at Monteverde so we all gathered on the terrace outside my room for pre-dinner drinks. It was a really fun evening. We were good and tidied up after ourselves, placing all the empty bottles, cans and snack packaging into the waste bins outside our rooms. We overlooked one thing…. The local wildlife. I was awoken at 02.00 by a clattering outside. I pulled back the curtain to see a large coati ransacking the bin contents. He proceeded to keep me awake for the next hour.