Hello Sendero Pacifico!

After a 5.30am start, a very bumpy truck ride, three bus rides and a very bumpy jeep ride, we arrived in San Luis de Monteverde about 7.30pm, exhausted (in addition to the long journey, we hadn’t had a day off after finishing at Cloudbridge) and sleepy but excited to be starting our next volunteering adventure.

Our new project is an ambitious, community-led project, organised by a baseball-cap wielding American called Nat, who is our friend Tom’s girlfriend’s Dad (following?!)…

Nat co-ordinates the whole project, and spends half of his time in Costa Rica living a spartan life in a primitive cottage in the middle of the countryside, and half his time back home in Maine.

The concept is a pretty cool one-anyone who has been to Monteverde will know that it’s one of Costa Rica’s, and indeed Central America’s biological gems-an incredible Cloud Forest heaving with animal life, dripping with epiphytes and just oozing atmosphere. This forest has an interesting history as it was originally established by a group of American Quaker settlers who left America in 1951 after objecting to the Korean War, who bought some land and took up dairy farming, eventually diversifying to cheese production.

They actually initially set up an area of protected forest to preserve the water shed as they were savvy enough to recognise how important it was to the success of their farming. However, after gross deforestation in the region (and across the country) throughout the second half of the last century, the importance of this protected area as a haven for Costa Rica’s diverse and rapidly declining flora and fauna intensified. Monteverde soon became a top tourist destination, and despite this sometimes being considered a mixed blessing, this secured the fate of the forest as a reserve and in turn encouraged the protection of more forest in the area (my favourite of these is a huge area of forest known as the Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (The Children’s Eternal Forest) which was funded entirely by the fund-raising efforts of school children around the world-what a glorious concept!).

Unfortunately, as soon as you start descending the Pacific slope, towards the Gulf of Nicoya, the landscape quickly changes from one that is predominantly forest to one that is predominantly farmland, with only patches of forest. Essentially you are left with ‘islands’ of forest, in a sea of farmland, which is not good for the wildlife that call these forests home. This region is known as the ‘Bellbird Corridor’ and is a region that has been identified by the Government as one that is of significant importance environmentally, as in addition to being home to an extremely diverse range of fauna and flora, it is a seasonal corridor for bird species such as its signature species, Three-Wattled Bellbird.

The beautiful three-wattled bellbird. Not my pic as I've not actually ever seen one! 

 The Costa Rica Pacific Slope Trail Network (or in Spanish the Sendero Pacifico) is an ambitious vision to link these ‘islands’ of forest, by creating a network of trail systems, huts, conservation properties and ecological agricultural initiatives by a trail which should eventually lead from the Cloudforest in Monteverde and the community of San Luis, to the Mangroves in the Gulf of Nicoya. The objective of this project is to gradually develop a continuous environmental corridor which will connect these ‘islands’ of forest, and therefore allow safe passage of animals between them. As the local communities involved in this project are essential to its success, it is important that there is an incentive for them, and that they are fully on board. It is therefore, uniquely a community-led project that, whilst having the support of the Government, is initiated, managed and run by the local people. The hope is that by developing this trail, you are bringing additional business to the local communities through which the trail passes, in the shape of accommodation (a homestay initiative is already up and running in some areas) and through the purchase of local goods and produce that will help to improve the local community.

The biological corridor

So far 5 communities are on board and the trail is about a third complete. We had the pleasure of working with one of these communities (San Luis de Monteverde) for over two weeks. Bro’s main job was to make a promotional video for the project, and my main job was….well to do a little of everything, and generally make myself useful! And so we came to spend a marvellous few weeks in the company of the extremely welcoming people of San Luis.