It is a place of large cloud forests, coffee plantations, rain, fog and friendly people. The city of Santa Elena is small and picturesque, full of tasty restaurants and folk artisan shops, while the nearby jungle is home to a huge amount of biodiversity.
Due to its high altitude, about 1,440 m (4,662 ft) above sea level, Monteverde has the privilege of receiving a constant amount of clouds and humidity. This moisture, often in the form of fog, adheres to the branches of the tallest trees and drips into the other organisms below. This helps create a complex and far-reaching ecosystem, which houses more than 100 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, tens of thousands of species of insects and more than 2,500 varieties of plants, 420 of which are orchids.
