Spending the past couple of days in Santa Elena has offered enchanting views, lush scenery, and slower paced days. After a bit of a terrifying shuttle ride — speeding past cars on a windy steep road in dumping rain — up to Monteverde from San Jose, Gavin and I checked into a quaint hostel called Pension Santa Elena. It’s a place that a friend recommended and has proved very welcoming. The staff have sat down with us and laid out our options of activities in the area, giving personal suggestions. One in particular has been great to speak both English and Spanish with, alternating between each language naturally. We took her advice and headed towards the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve for a hike around the Forest.
There was a small group that was hiking at the same time as us but it mostly felt like we were the only ones there. We first hiked to a lookout point where you can see the Arenal volcano (we even saw the top of it with no clouds when we first arrived).
My favorite part of the forest was going down this path called “Del Bajo” that instantly cooled in temperature and had pockets of sunshine shining through the trees when you looked up. The path had “invitations” throughout it where you could choose to practice in mindfulness activities, appreciating the nature around you and taking it in, focusing on all of your sense while refraining from talking and taking photos. They called this “Shinrin-Yoku” or in English, “Forest Bathing.”
Gavin and I participated in the Forest Bathing and I noticed things such as a nearby stream and the sounds of various birds and animals that I may have otherwise missed. I also noticed how fresh and clean the air felt. Standing in the forest with our eyes closed and taking deep breaths was a perfect way to appreciate the beauty of the nature around us.
We expected to get poured on the whole time but to our surprised, it was quite warm and sunny! We thought, “we’re really close to that zip lining place, should we take advantage of this sunshine and go??” Yes, we did take advantage of that sunshine and went zip lining at Selvatura Park. Once in the trees, flying over the forest on a cable, Gavin and I couldn’t believe we even questioned doing this. We had the most amazing zip lining guides and a very friendly group. We all cheered for each other and took videos that were later shared within the group. I’ll include the “Tarzan Swing” that we all did before our last 1km zip line!
This was a perfectly active day, finished with amazing tacos and a good beer in Santa Elena. The following day, we awoke for our coffee tour that was planned for the morning. It was a beautiful, warm morning to be on the Monteverde Coffee Farm. This experience was so much more than tasting coffee because we learned about the sustainable practices that they have for the whole farm. We saw the stages of the seed becoming a tree and learned about their partnerships as well.
I found it interesting that if coffee beans grow in higher altitude, they are more dense which doesn’t necessarily mean better, it just means it’s more bitter. We saw the banana and citrus trees planted intentionally around the coffee plants to give them more shade which they need to grow. We learned about the effects of climate change, causing more sporadic rains that wash away the pesticides and fertilizers. And we even saw their enormous and stinky compost pile that they use to make fertilizers and natural pesticides. They make up their compost pile with all of the farm animal waste and left over food. The farm animals included chickens, hens, and goats. We got to collect the eggs from the hens, feed the goats, and even use their bicycle powered device that cut banana tree leaves for the goats food. We also passed through their garden where they had mountains of fresh vegetables. We learned about the process of picking the beans too once they’re ready, which seems like a very meticulous process.
We ended the tour with seeing the differently processed beans and finally taste testing different coffees. Gavin was able to correctly guess the type of coffee he was drinking (light, medium, dark roast & honey v. natural)! Our coffee tour guide was very friendly and did an amazing job explaining the science and art behind making coffee.
After returning to town and eating a great lunch, it started to dump rain. The sound, sight, and smell of the rain is peaceful from our open window. It’s a beautiful place to be.
*Several photos are by Gavin 🙂
