#9  The Cloud Forest

Say "Costa Rican Cloud Forest" and most people think of the famous Monteverde Reserve.
But there's another Cloud Forest reserve in the same general vicinity.  The St. Elena Reserve.  My 'Lonely Planet' guidebook advises that St. Elena is less visited than Monteverde, but equally spectacular... maybe even more so because it is at a higher elevation (5500ft.)

Surprisingly, none of the mountains in Costa Rica's north-central 'spine' are especially high.  The loftiest peaks are found elsewhere in the country; and only 7 of them are higher than 3000 meters.

But one doesn't go to the Cloud Forest reserves for 'peak' experiences.  One goes to see dense, lush, native jungle... and the animals that live there.  I saw only birds, as most of CR's animals are nocturnal.

The lush jungle at St. Elena Reserve is nurtured by an almost constant cloud cover. It wasn't truly raining when I hiked there. But the condensation of the fog on the giant green leaves was so constant that accumulated water drops would eventually cause the leaves to bend downwards, sending a shower to the jungle flora beneath.

I'm no botanist, and I know the names of few jungle plants, but I was nonetheless impressed by the variety and the density of the understory... and the overstory. Unique in all the world, I was told.
Unique, certainly.  Yet strangely familiar to me.  Many sections of the trail reminded me of walks I've taken in the Santa Cruz Mountains on a foggy day.