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Hello my dear readers,<br /><br />In the past five years, while I travel extensively, I have visited most of the places which "I wanted to visit for all my life". Fortunately I found more places I wanted to visit, mostly from reading other travelers' stories. One of my favorite is Vladimir Dinets. In Central America I follow his footsteps. See "America Latina" at his Internet site: http://dinets.travel.ru/

Central America (part III)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 18:36:24

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/>I spent the night in my tent and the next day I wanted to find a hitch back to the PanAmericana Hwy like Dinets did. No way, I had to push my bike all 12 km uphill on that terrible road. It was baking sun and no shade. It was a good lesson for me to learn. I plan to follow Dinets's footsteps in China this summer. But now I will keep in mind that I may be not so lucky as him. Cars on PanAmericana do not stop for hitchhikers. So I rode my bike till dusk and then set up the tent in bushes near the road. The next day I eventually reached Montoverde National Tropical Cloud Forest Reserve.

FYI (For your information): A Tropical Cloud Forest is different then Tropical Rain Forest. A Tropical Rain Forest, such as the Amazon Jungle, receives most of its moisture from the rain. The cloud forest receive it from the clouds and mist. Monteverde is an amazing place. Many consider it to be a Costa Rica's major attractions. I do not understand why Vladimir did not visit it. Sun and rain switch very often here. Actually the droplets of moisture are always in the air, even when the sun is shining. This has produced the highest biodiversity on the earth. It means that the cloud forest have more different plants per squire mile than any other forest on the Earth. It is real biodiversity madness. Most of plants do not touch the ground. They sit on the branches of large trees and get all they need from the air.

Costa Ricans deserve credit for making their Cloud Forest relatively easily available for tourists to see, without significantly damaging it. From the town of Santa Elena you can take one hour public bus to Monte Verde park headquarters. In two days I took two tours; one on a walking path, another through a series of bridges built over the deep ravines in forest. I did not take that popular zip-wire tour. As a muntain climber I did not want to participate in that kindergardner's activity. From walking path I tried several times to stray into ...