Santa Elena Reserve....also a cloud forest

In addition to the Monteverde Cloud forest, Kristin and I visited the Santa Elena reserve on our day 2 hike and then the Bosque Eterno de Los Ninos (the eternal forest of the children) on day 3.  We got up early on both days and started our hikes after a quick breakfast at the taco stand next door to La Pension.  You had to hike the reserves in the morning because the clouds/rain started rolling in around 1 or 2 and then you got wet and you couldn't see much.

SANTA ELENA RESERVE:

As we were waiting for the bus to take us to the reserve, we were joined by the cutest dog...he just walked up to us, jumped in my lap, curled up and went to sleep.  Then he switched into Kristin's lap.  I also noticed a very interesting bumper sticker in the window of our hostel....

What a smooth operator!

The first thing we did when we got to the reserve was to hike to the observation tower.  From here you could see the volcano Arenal (our next destination)....as well as just about all of Costa Rica!  It was gorgeous.  It was a place I wish I had brought some coffee and some breakfast....beautiful place to hang out.

Welcome!

The tower....it was really tall

Kristin headed to the top platform

360  view from the tower.  WOW! The peak in the middle is the Vocano Arenal.

You can see the lake near Volcano Arenal from here!

I liked this reserve better than the Monteverde reserve.  There were less people so it was quieter.  We didn't see very many animals here either...except for lots of small birds and a few frogs and a snake.  Again, the plants/trees and the views were gorgeous.

a cute little frog....he was very well hidden

One of the creeks in the reserve...this one had a decent bridge to cross

Me on a sunny patch of path

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the moon through the trees

a giant forest millipede

Our little snake friend

As a biology teacher, I couldn't resist lining up this fruit into its stages of development.....I know, I am a dork, but I thought it made a pretty cool picture.

I believe this is a red-faced spinetail......cute little bird

This was another view of Volcano Arenal from one of the path overlooks

A tree fern

Me trying to hide inside a tree "cave"

There are some really big trees here

This spiderweb held a rainbow in its captured raindrops....

One of the trails

And then the clouds started to roll in so it was time to start home

  And of course, we ended up walking in the rain.....Again.  I don't think there was ever a day that we didn't get caught in the rain.