Monteverde Activities

I hate to say this, but the Night Walk at the Ecological Sanctuary and the trip to the World of Insects was kinda lame. It seems like the better guides are not working during the holiday season. Still glad we went though.

During the Night Walk, we spent a lot of time searching for an owl. The guide was just completely obsessed with finding this thing and unfortunately was unsuccessful. We saw a gigantic tarantula in a dug-out shelter, a few sleeping birds, and an ant mound of 5 million ants. I did notice the blue and glistening eyeshine of a spider by myself because I had been reading about this. That was my highlight.

banana trees in the moonlight

gigantic mound of 5 million ants

Afterwards, we had dinner at a fancyish restaurant in our smelly hiking clothes. I remember it being overpriced and good but not great. I think it was called Sophia. Later, we got back to our chilly treehouse, and I photographed some bugs through the windows, trying to capture the eyeshine.

bugs

success! - moths typically have pink eyeshine

Later the next day, we went to el Mundo de Insectos. Again, maybe it's different in the non-holiday season, but it was not worth $10 per person. There were live insects in exhibits - not just the ones you see mounted below - but they were nothing special.

insect art

We were excited to visit the Frog Pond again; however, this was just not working out for us either. We paid the fee for the guided tour. We were told to wait by the tunnel. No one ever came, so we just went in. A bit later a guide with a couple of people caught up to us, but the guide ignored us, so we just went around and took pictures. Disappointing.

Costa Rica's ambassador - the red-eyed tree frog

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map of the Monteverde & Santa Elena Region

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hey little bat!

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