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Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Spa & Hotel

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travelswithkids
travelswithkids
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Hike the Los Angeles Cloud Forest at the Serene VillaBlanca

Hike the Los Angeles Cloud Forest at the Serene VillaBlanca

Villa Blanca is a peaceful, away-from-it-all resort outside of San Ramon. It's about 1/3 of the way from San Jose to the Arenal/La Fortuna area, so stopping by is a nice way to break up the drive. The resort is beside the Los Angeles Cloud Forest nature reserve. It isn't a huge cloud forest, but we weren't going to make it to the Monteverde cloud forests on our trip, so we stopped by here for a 2-hour guided hiking tour (US $26/person).

They have some primary (uncut) cloud forest, some that was re-planted 20-40 years ago, and some more recent replanting, and it was interesting to see the contrasts. While hiking, the tour guide pointed out the usual plants and insects, such as leaf-cutter ants. We also spotted a pair of toucans in the wild, and several other species of birds. At the end of the tour is a hummingbird garden where we saw several of at least 4 different hummingbird species darting around. I could have watched the hummingbirds for hours. But seeing the trees dripping with bromeliads and moss and huge monkey-head ferns was really the main attraction.

Villa Blanca is about 10 km off of the main road just north-west of San Ramon. Watch for signs. The road from the main road is narrow, but in pretty nice shape.

The resort also has a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and featuring hand-painted ceiling tiles depicting dedications to Mary for each Latin American country, for example, the Virgin of Guadelupe for Mexico.

From journal The Green and Gold of Costa Rica

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