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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Costa Rica: Monteverde

A purple-throated mountain-gem hummingbird (Lampornis calolaemus) in Selvatura Park
A purple-throated mountain-gem hummingbird (Lampornis calolaemus) in Selvatura Park

More often than not, recommendations from other travellers are like gold dust, and they completely transform your experience. Sometimes, however, they just don't work out, and in Monteverde, one of Costa Rica's main tourist attractions, things didn't quite go as planned.

Peta on the canopy walkway at Selvatura Park
Peta on the canopy walkway at Selvatura Park
The view from the canopy walk
The view from the canopy walk

Into the Cloud Forest

The artificial hummingbird feeders at Selvatura Park
The artificial hummingbird feeders at Selvatura Park

Undaunted, the following morning we all headed off to Selvatura Park to check out the cloud forest first-hand, and we were all in pretty high spirits as we hopped into the shuttle bus that picked us up from the hotel. The bus was full of elderly Americans on two-week holidays – who were sociable but completely out of sync with the kind of trip we've been on – so perhaps we should have spotted the warning signs from the start, because in the end Selvatura Park turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Large groups of tourists flocking round the hummingbirds
Large groups of tourists flocking round the hummingbirds
One of the bridges on the canopy walk
One of the bridges on the canopy walk
Entering the cloud forest on the SkyTrek zipline
Entering the cloud forest on the SkyTrek zipline
Ziplining the cloud forest: the tiny blob in the middle of the photograph is Mark
Ziplining the cloud forest: the tiny blob in the middle of the photograph is me
One of the zipline towers at SkyTrek
One of the zipline towers at SkyTrek
Santa Elena
Santa Elena