Clouds and Mist

Down a slow, narrow dirt road that leads east from the village of Los Angeles Sur, everything is green.

 

The Los Angeles Cloud Forest is a private reserve that's contiguous to Monteverde, a more famous cloud forest that is normally on the tourist itinerary. The day we were there, a fog came over the forest, silent and dripping.

Many tropical countries do not have cloud forests, while others have similar ecological zones under different names. It is higher than a rain forest, here at about 3600 feet, and the low cloud cover allows a dense assortment of life forms to live on the moisture. Some of the trees have 20 or more species coexisting upon them.

At the Villablanca hotel, we took coffee with honey and then a kind of cassoulet with beans and a tomato sauce. Some of the vegetables were prepared so fresh that they quickened the senses and made me feel more alert to the world around us.

Then we walked through the forest, taking advantage of one of their excellent tour guides.

We were told that the weather that day, the low fog and light rain, used to be typical a generation ago. Global warming could destroy the forests within a few decades.

On display was the Costa Rican oxcart, a national symbol. They were used to haul coffee from the highlands to port.

Comments

[Alicia]

Wow, Beautiful!

I was wondering if you could point in a map where it is because I have been looking for it for ages and it was never found.

Thanks so much.

Alicia

[Avery]

Here is the website:

http://www.villablanca-costarica.com/