Hanging bridge in Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica

© Dmitriy Burlakov/Getty Image

How’s the air up there?. Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica

Today we’re taking a walk through the clouds to visit one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on the planet. Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest is in the Tilarán mountain range 1,524 metres above sea level. Hundreds of different animal species and thousands of insect and plant species call the forest home. Diligent nature lovers could count nearly 700 different types of butterflies and 500 different species of orchids during a visit. Famous in the scientific community, the forest also attracts more than 70,000 tourists a year.

You may be wondering, what exactly is a ‘cloud forest?’ Different than a rainforest, they’re forests high enough above sea level to be covered by persistent mist and fog generated by the forest's own evaporating moisture. This makes for a damp and humid, yet cool environment. Generally tropical, they’re pretty rare. Only one percent of the current global woodland is considered true cloud forest. Entirely dependent on an area’s local climate, it is expected that many of the 736 locations currently identified as cloud forests will be strongly impacted and altered in the coming years. Monteverde, in fact, is known as the location where the first climate-related species extinction was recorded—in the 1980s, the golden toad fell victim to a parasitic fungus that spread into the area due to the changing climate.