Quetzal Still Stars, but Preserve Has Divine Supporting Cast
By John Mitchell
Special to The Tico Times

Our rickety bus tipped from side to side like a teeter-totter as it strained up the twisting dirt road leading to the Monteverde cloud forest in northwestern Costa Rica. Darkness was falling, and I wondered if we were going to make it up the steep inclines and if I would find a place to sleep that night.

Luckily, my fears proved to be unfounded. We soon rolled into the small town of Santa Elena. As I stepped onto terra firma, a smiling young man asked me if I needed a hotel. He showed me pictures of his family's cozy, Swiss-style pension, and I told him to lead the way.

Next morning, after a sound sleep, I found a taxi parked next to the town's main square and set out for the nearby Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. En route, we passed through the Quaker community of Monteverde looking strangely out-of-place with its tidy farm buildings and pastures stretching beside the pot-holed road.

Attracted by Costa Rica's agreeable climate, fertile soil, and peaceful ways, a group of 11 Quaker families from the United States settled in Monteverde during the early 1950s. They bought 3,700 acres of land and took up dairy farming.

The Quakers initially set aside one-third of their land to protect the watershed above Monteverde. In 1972, several environmental organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservancy, helped buy additional parcels of land next to the Quakers' holdings to create the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. It now encompasses some 26,000 acres managed by the Tropical Science Center, a non-profit organization based in San José.

Before long, we arrived at the visitors' center, where I picked up a map of the reserve and a trail guide. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve has seven trails winding almost eight miles through a variety of different vegetation zones with 2,500 kinds of plants. I decided to follow the Cloud Forest Trail, an interpretive nature trail that leads over a mile to a lookout known as La Ventana (The Window) atop the Continental Divide.

Like most visitors to Monteverde, I hoped to see a Resplendent Quetzal, perhaps the most beautiful and elusive bird in Central America. This iridescent scarlet and emerald-green bird was considered sacred by the ancient Maya, and the male quetzal was prized for its elegant two-foot-long tail feathers.

I knew that my chances of spotting a quetzal were slim. For most of the year, quetzals migrate up and down Costa Rica's Pacific and Atlantic slopes in search of wild avocados, their principal food.

Wonders greeted me at every stop on the nature trail. Umbrella-like trees festooned with Strangler Figs, hanging vines, and orchids towered above me. In sunlit clearings I came face-to-face with giant tree ferns.

Colorful butterflies, some with diaphanous wings, floated overhead, and I spied a bright green and purple hummingbird coaxing nectar from the flowers of a red-leafed "Hot Lips" plant.

After about an hour, the trail took a sharp right turn, and I started climbing steadily up the Continental Divide to La Ventana, more than 5,000 feet above sea level. The wind picked up with increasing altitude, and trees gradually became sparse and stunted. Dense fog suddenly shrouded the path, then dispersed as quickly as it had arrived. Soon I found myself standing on a small patch of high ground overlooking carpets of unbroken forest stretching to both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

I took a different path back to the visitors' center. Along the way, I came across a group of birdwatchers armed with binoculars, plus a bored-looking photographer with his camera and long lens aimed at a spot high in the trees. He claimed that someone had reported sighting a quetzal there the day before. I kept him company for a while, with my camera cocked and ready, but then decided to forge ahead, resigned to the probability that there were no quetzals in my immediate future.

Back at the preserve's entrance, I was making my way across the parking when a park ranger came running toward me waving his arms and shouting, "Señor! Señor! Un quetzal!"

He led me to a clearing behind the visitors' center and pointed excitedly to the top of a very tall tree. Sure enough, a large bird was perched amidst the dense foliage with its back to us. I sat on the ground and waited, hoping that the quetzal would take flight so that I might be able to snap a decent photo. But it refused to budge, so I eventually gave up and waved good-bye to the quetzal, feeling happy that I had at least been granted a peek at this rare and exotic denizen of the cloud forest.

GETTING THERE

Buses to Santa Elena and Montverde leave the Atlántico Norte Terminal at Av. 9, Calle 12 in San José (about $5, 4 hours). Santa Elena has simple but comfortable hotels catering to budget travelers.

The Preserve (www.cct.or.cr) is six km from Santa Elena and can be reached by public bus or taxi (about $5 each way), open daily 7 a.m. to 4 p.m, $12 for adults and $6.50 for children. Maps, bird and animal lists, plus a Nature Trail Guide are available at the visitors' center. The Hummingbird Gallery near the preserve's entrance has feeders that attract several species of hummingbirds.