Santa Elena: Incredible Insects & Fantastic Frogs…

From our week in Atenas we set off for a week in Santa Elena, a small town very close to Monteverde. It was a long journey, partly because we got stuck in traffic along the way and partly because of the final stretch of roads. The last few miles there are lots of potholes as you climb the final part of the mountain. We arrived at our apartment, dropped off our things and set off for the town centre to get some lunch.

We’d arrived in reasonable weather but as we made our way into town the wind got up and the rain began. It was very windy and considerably colder up in the mountains. Getting pelted in the face with the rain coming in sideways at us, our suspicions that we were ill-equipped for the climate of the cloud forest had seemingly been confirmed. We went for lunch at the Treehouse Restaurant which had been built around a large tree. On the one hand it was really beautiful sitting under the boughs (some of which were propped up with part of the building) but given the sudden drop n temperature it was also a bit chilly to be somewhere so open plan.

After lunch we set off in search of some waterproofs as the rain was showing little sign of easing off. We found some good quality yellow jackets for the girls but Rachael and I ended up with some rather flimsy looking plastic ponchos and just hoped that they would serve the purpose. It’s tricky in these situations to strike the right balance. On the one hand we don’t like to buy something which is cheap and throw-away but on the other hand we were only going to be there for a week and didn’t want to fork out for an expensive waterproof which we would then carry around for the rest of the time. When we were back home in England we had read various blogs and travel sites many of which recommend taking hiking boots and sturdy waterproofs. We decided not to bring those items and I still think that we were right to do so. You really need to consider how much of the time they would be getting used and how much of the time you would be carrying around that extra weight for the sake of a handful of outings. It definitely seemed like there was a potential gap in the market for somewhere that would hire those kinds of items but we certainly didn’t find one.

Those first couple of days in Santa Elena we were unfortunate with the weather. None of us got very much sleep to begin with as the wind was howling through the thin roof of our apartment all night. We had to take care of the usual things too – getting food and getting to grips with what kind of domestic infrastructure we had to cook our meals with.

This particular stay was challenging with only a small hob, a little shelf-oven and a microwave. Added to that we only had 4 sets of cutlery, plates, bowls, etc it meant that we had to run a very tight and tidy kitchen to be able to move from one meal to the next. Sometimes it feels like I might be overstating this aspect of our travels but in truth as a family travelling on a budget and trying to continue to feed ourselves a healthy diet it’s always a huge consideration and has a strong influence on how much time we have for other things.

On our first morning there I got up early to head out and explore with the goal of finding some good pastries for breakfast. It was still wet and wild outside and I quickly proved to myself how utterly useless the biodegradable poncho that I’d purchased was going to be. If it had just been raining then it would have served some purpose but with the wind too it was like wearing a kite and the noise it made flapping around was more of a bother than getting wet. I took it off. I walked a short distance and sadly returned with some rather underwhelming pastries for breakfast. However, it had still been interesting food for thought. Heading out at that time I got to see various lorries arriving to stock the supermarkets in the area. Santa Elena is a very small town and so it left me thinking about all of the infrastructure and inflow of goods each day which was all to support a temporary and passing population. Tourism is a very sought after source of income in Costa Rica and we were later to find out that it’s been gained very successfully in this area but nevertheless it’s interesting to note the cost at which it can come. Perhaps this was all the more striking giving our experience of the poorly maintained winding roads leading up the mountainside; the idea of a daily pilgrimage by both goods lorries and tourists along those roads reminded me of a scaled up version of what we’d seen in Atenas and other areas. This would all be almost unthinkable without the use of motor vehicles.

Thankfully whatever weather system had been hovering over the cloud forests when we first arrived gradually passed. To begin with the days were rainy with the wind and rain passing in the afternoon and leaving us with pleasant evenings. By the third day it had all but passed.

On our second day there we braved the weather and took a chance heading off to the mariposario (butterfly garden), assuming that as most of the butterflies are under cover that even if it were raining we would all stay dry.When we first arrived at the mariposario we were greeted by the very friendly man on reception who was keen to show us the tarantula that he had in a jar under his desk! They had found it wandering about that morning and told as that they would release it again somewhere in the evening when it wouldn’t be at risk of getting trodden on.

We were assigned a guide and started our tour after a short wait. The tour started in a classroom with an introduction to bugs other than butterflies first. I do think that with these kinds of days out the kind of experience you get can be highly variable; we were really fortunate to have a guide who was really passionate about all of the other creepy crawlies and made it really fun for both us and the children. Whilst the main attraction of the mariposario (as the name suggests) are the butterflies she really managed to bring the other insects and arachnids centre stage as well. As she quite rightly pointed out “You probably wouldn’t have come to visit us if it was called a bug house!”. Our girls really loved some of the wonderful facts that our guide shared with us. There are some that really stuck in our memories. I remember her telling us how cockroaches make the perfect pets because if you need to go away on holiday you don’t need to get somebody to look after them: you can simply pop them in the freezer when you leave and then defrost them in the microwave when you return! Indeed this ability helped cockroaches to survive the last ice-age and it’s mind-boggling to imagine them frozen for thousands of years and then thawing out to recolonise the planet.

The girls got to hold large millipedes whilst hearing that it was only relatively recently that one had been discovered which did actually have a thousand legs. They got to hear small beetles sing their songs (yes jokes were made about The Beatles) as we were told that this particular beetle has a huge repertoire of songs – most memorably that they have one for wooing, one that they sing whilst mating and another that they sing after the event!! We were introduced to both scorpions and tarantulas and also given a more accurate description of the dangers posed by both types of arachnid. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are not especially dangerous unless they are provoked and even then the stings and bites are not as dangerous as we are led to believe by movies and sensationalist stories. This was probably all very reassuring for the children to hear as well with all of these bugs getting the other side of their story told such as the vital role of cockroaches in the processes of decomposition and the benefits of keeping spiders around the house to keep mosquito populations down.

After a really interesting and amusing introduction we were taken down to explore a number of butterfly houses. We’d been given so many amazing facts about the other bugs on site that initially I think we set off feeling slightly less excited about the butterflies than we had expected to be but once we were in the enclosures surrounded by them softly floating and fluttering by everyone was captivated. We found some amazing caterpillars too!

We had an amazing time at the mariposario but in hindsight we didn’t time our visit as well as we could have done. By the time we finished the tour it was well was past lunchtime and everyone was hungry. Luckily I saw a sign for somewhere down the hill so we walked down to explore further and found ourselves at the perfect chance discovery for a bit of lunch. Just 50 metres or so from the mariposario was a permaculture farm which offered farm tours and ran their restaurant on farm-to-table principles! There were also stunning views across the cloud forest below and out over the valley. We had a really good lunch along with kombucha, herbal lemonades and fresh fruit smoothies all made from their produce on the farm. It was a shame that it was a chance find as it would have been great to go on some of their farm tours but we’d probably done enough for one day.

Our next day out in Santa Elena was a visit to the ranario (frog garden) which was just a short walk along the road from where we were staying. One great thing about this place is that you get 2 entries on your ticket so that you can go back after dark to spot all of the nocturnal frogs. We went there first in the daytime and before you go down to see the frogs there is a great display of framed butterflies, moths, beetles and other stunning insects. There are probably 2 main things that impress us humans about these insects: one is how big they are and the other is the stunning colours they sometimes have!

Down in the frog garden, armed with torches we set about hunting frogs. Each tank has a helpful description above telling you if the frog is nocturnal / diurnal, its size and whether it is a tree frog or a ground frog – all useful information to help you find them especially as some of them were so tiny that they would fit on your thumbnail! We went around the tanks 2 times on that first visit and we actually did pretty well to find 10 out of the 26 species that they hold. We were also really lucky that on our second round we met one of the staff who showed us the baby tree frogs that he was introducing into one of the tanks and he helped us to find some of the ones that we had failed to spot. He went on to describe to us how they only keep a frog in the tank for a week before putting it back into their outside area and replacing it with another specimen so that none of them are permanently in captivity.

Our return trip in the evening was really exciting. I think that we’ve found throughout our stay in Costa Rica that evening trips are fun – the soundscape with all of the insects calling out is very atmospheric and it’s fair to say that children always enjoy going out after dark. Going around the ranario after dark and once again armed with our torches was even more fun than the daytime visit and we managed to complete our collection and spot the remaining species. It was great to get to see some of the iconic species of the tropics up close. We would definitely recommend this as an activity to anyone visiting with children as it was such fun and such great value with the two trips included in the ticket price.

Heading home that evening and enjoying the night-time soundscape marked the mid-point of what turned out to be a very full week. So full in fact that I’ve had to split it into two posts!

Check out the gallery below from Santa Elena…