Monteverde & Santa Elena

Introducing Monteverde & Santa Elena

Strung between two lovingly preserved cloud forests is this slim corridor of civilization, which consists of the Tico village of Santa Elena and the Quaker settlement of Monteverde. The history of these settlements dates back to the 1930s when a few Tico families left the gold-mining settlement of Juntas, and headed up the mountain to try to make a living through logging and farming.

In a completely unrelated turn of events, four Quakers (a pacifist religious group also known as the ‘Friends’) were jailed in Alabama in 1949 for their refusal to be drafted into the Korean War. Since Quakers are obligated by their religion to be pacifists, the four men were eventually released from prison. However, in response to the incarceration, 44 Quakers from 11 families left the United States and headed for greener pastures – namely Monteverde.

The Quakers chose Monteverde (or Green Mountain) for two reasons – a few years prior, the Costa Rican government had abolished its military and the cool, mountain climate was ideal for grazing cattle. So, the Quakers found their isolated refuge from the ills of the world, and adopted a simple, trouble-free life of dairy farming and cheese production amid a new-found world of religious freedom.

But the story doesn’t end there. In an effort to protect the watershed above its 1500-hectare plot in Monteverde, the Quaker community agreed to preserve the mountaintop rain forests. When ecologists arrived in the area years later to investigate the preserve, they discovered that the cloud forests were actually two different ecosystems that straddled both sides of the Continental Divide. In the Monteverde Reserve, the warm, moisture-laden trade winds from the Caribbean sweep up the slopes of the divide where they then cool and condense to form clouds. These clouds also pass over the Reserva Santa Elena, though the absence of the trade winds means that the forests here are a few degrees warmer than in Monteverde. As a result of this temperature differential, each ecosystem boasts several distinct species, most of which you probably won’t be able to see.

A 1983 feature article in National Geographic described this unique landscape, and subsequently billed the area as the place to view one of Central America’s most famous birds – the resplendent quetzal. Suddenly, hordes of tourists armed with tripods and telephoto lenses started braving Monteverde’s notoriously awful access roads, which of course came as a huge shock to the then-established Quaker community. In an effort to stem the tourist flow, local communities lobbied to stop developers from paving the roads. And it worked. Today, the dirt roads leading to Monteverde and Santa Elena have effectively created a moat around this precious experiment in sustainable ecotourism.

The cloud forests near Monteverde and Santa Elena are Costa Rica’s premier destination, and everyone from budget backpackers to well-heeled retirees has it on their to-do list. On a good day, Monteverde is a place where you can be inspired about the possibility of a world where organic farming and alternative energy sources help to salvage the fine mess we’ve made of the planet. On a bad day, Monteverde is place where you can marvel at the latest in eco-adventure fashion including khaki socks, zipper-pants and multipocketed safari vests. Clearly, the balance here between ecopark and Eco-Disney remains fragile, though the local community continues to fight against the threat of overdevelopment.

Last updated: Oct 20, 2009