Hiking the Cloud Forest.........on a mostly cloudless day!

Beth in deep thought while amongst the clouds and trees

One of the main attractions of Monteverde is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.  This preserve is over 26,000 acres in size.  It is rated as "extremely high" in it's biodiversity.  Over 2.500 plant species, 100 species of mammals, 400 bird species, 120 reptilian and amphibian species and thousands of types of insects have been documented living in the preserve.  It is also considered to have more types of orchids than any other single place on the planet (unfortunately they are not in bloom right now).  That's some pretty impressive numbers of both plants and animals.  We quickly discovered that it was well worth the visit, especially since the entrance to the preserve was only a mile or so from our hotel.

These Hydrangeas weren't in the preserve.  They are actually growing just outside our hotel room.  They're about the size of a soccer ball.

The preserve consists of a number of trails that make their way through the dense forest.  The trails are extremely well maintained and clearly marked.  The only word of caution I would give about the trails is that if you're looking for a flat surface for your hike, this isn't it.  Every trail we hiked, and we hiked almost all of them, was a constantly changing elevation.
The clouds did show up for a few minutes but for the most part it was a cloudless day.  Thanks to the thick canopy of tall trees the temperature remained pleasant.  According to the I-phone we covered 8.5 miles and around 100 flights of stairs.  I'm not sure how many different plant species we saw, lets just say it was a bunch.  I'm also not sure how many different members of the animal kingdom we saw, but I'm betting it's safe to say for every one we saw there were at least ten we didn't see that did see us.  I hope we provided as much entertainment for them as the hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve provided for us.

It was a Cloud Forest for a few minutes.

A couple of helpful hints if you're thinking of visiting:
As I previously mentioned, the trails are well maintained and marked.  There were one or two places that were a little muddy.  A sturdy pair of walking shoes are all you need.
Guides are available for hire at the entrance.  The entrance fee is currently $22 per person.  The guides are an additional $20 per person.  I'm sure we would have seen and learned a lot more with a guide.  I'm also sure that by the time our heads hit the pillow tonight we would have forgotten practically everything we learned.  We opted not to use a guide and don't really feel as if we missed out.
There is a very nice hanging bridge on one trail and another trail that leads to a small but scenic waterfall.  Make sure to try to hit both of these trails on your visit.

There is only one hanging bridge in the preserve but it's a good one.  There was a sign on a tree as we crossed the bridge that stated that 40 different types of orchids live in that particular tree...…...unfortunately it's not orchid season!

At the end of the Waterfall Trail

There is a small coffee shop just outside the entrance.  With your ticket and receipt you can exit and reenter the park on the same day.  Our advice would be to do a trail or two, take a break and then go back for more.

The coffee shop has outdoor seating with great views.

We were there for approximately 5 hours, break included.