One of the things that surprised me the most the first time I visited Monteverde was the biodiversity. Since Monteverde is famous around the world for just that, my statement probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but let me explain.

When you’ve been in the tour business for as long as we have you pick up on a few local favorites. Especially when you have watched them grow and evolve over the course of 15 years working together.

When I was a naturalist tour guide, I met a couple of amateur photographers who I traveled with for a while (I shared their passion for photography. We had been in different areas of Costa Rica and wherever we went, I could see their passion for finding beauty in the most simple places. But what they really taught me is that you can have and enjoy a photographic eye even without a camera (or phone) in your hand.

It happens every day in the sunny season. People in Monteverde gather in different places to see the sunset. There are a couple of spots with benches where visitors and locals get together and see the magnificence of the multicolored sky reflecting in the stillness of the distant Pacific Ocean.

A few days ago, talking to a friend, he was saying how indispensable his smartwatch was becoming in his life. From my side, with a different lifestyle and living in Monteverde, I told him I didn't have a watch since a long time ago, nor a clock anywhere in my house. I guess the phone clock is enough for me.

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

Life in Monteverde revolves, in many ways, around the nearby cloud forest. Why? Because it’s such a rare occurrence! Only 1% of the world's remaining forests are cloud forests. This focus on the cloud forest often distracts from the fact that we have several other kinds of forest here as well.

The Ocotea Tree. Ocotea Trees are a type of tree in the family of the Lauraceae. In Monteverde there are several species, however, some of the most important of them are also the most delicate and important for conservation efforts, especially the endemic Ocotea Monteverdensis.

One of the things that everyone who comes to Costa Rica loves is that wildlife is usually visible.