Sunset Over the Treetops at Monteverde

Monteverde sits along Costa Rica's Tilarán Cordillera, where trade winds off the Caribbean push moisture up the slopes and condense into the near-constant mist that gives the cloud forest its name. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, established in 1972, protects roughly 10,500 hectares and spans six distinct ecological zones across an elevation range of about 1,440 to 1,800 meters. That shift in elevation and moisture supports more than 2,500 plant species, including over 400 types of orchids, along with some 100 mammal species and 400 bird species, among them the resplendent quetzal. Quaker settlers and conservationists who arrived in the 1950s helped set aside the original forest tract, a decision credited with starting the region's long-running ecotourism economy.