Bosque Nuboso de Monteverde

I was in a dream: I swear it's true. I was walking on a clear path in a cloud and the air was cool, fresh and uplifting. The light has a diffused glow that seems to slow dance with the air. No matter which direction I looked, I could not see more than 20 feet or account of the clouds that I was in or because of the vegetation. I was practically alone on the trail, except for maybe a random person that would pass every 40 minutes or so. If I could sum it up in one word, I would say "ethereal."

Monteverde, a tropical cloud forest; a type of forest that supports "20% of the world's plant diversity and 16% of the vertebrae diversity in only 0.4% of the Earth's surface." The whole afternoon and night, it had been really pouring. When I got there this morning it was still raining and continued to rain the 4 hours that I was there. But, it was beautiful and it provided that luminescent atmosphere through which I walked. It was a time of reflection. It was a time of observation. It was a time of awe. What was I doing here anyway?

Although there wasn't much to see in regard to animals, (as most of them live higher up in the trees) a couple of hummingbirds startled me more than a few times, I saw a pretty big centipede, a crayfish, a couple of insects I'd never seen before, a spider-monkey and lots of vegetation that was new to me. I took my time walking the trails and trying to soak in as much as I could.

And then I came to a viewpoint: it was a viewpoint that I'm sure has inspired many before me and will inspire many to come, but it is a viewpoint that depends on the weather. I am referring to the Continental Divide. Although I could not see very far on account of the cloudiness, I was struck by the realization that I was really on the edge of something great and powerful and something that shaped the very land I walked on. I took some time to reflect and moved on.

10 minutes later I came to another viewpoint and again I could see anything but this time I couldn't be sure. It looked as though there were outlines of mountains in the clouds every so often. And then the wind blew suddenly and the mountains appeared out of thin air and they were so close, it felt like they were in my face. The feeling was exhilarating.

I'm really thankful for where I'm at right now.