| Monteverde Cloud School | ||
| This is Milton Brenes who spoke to us at the Cloud School, he's the Land Stewardship/Environmental Education Coordinator. He is a man of vision committed to reforestation and restoration of native plants. He says that the students do the environmental projects, he helps them with ideas. His parting message to us was that all people who work with children should know that bringing students into nature calms and quiets them - and makes them better students. |  |
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| The school has a vegetable garden where students learn to plant and care for all kinds of vegetables and herbs. | I'm not sure you can see this, but the plots are separated by grade. | |
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| The students also raise chickens. They learn to care for them, and then sell them to raise money for supplies. | We were fortunate to have the seniors share with us their projects. They have planted thousands of trees since 2000. They measure and track the progress of this reforestation. Species are returning to the area due to their efforts. | |
| Monteverde Cloud Forest | ||
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| Walking through the Cloud Forest was incredible. I realized though that flora and fauna in the forest takes patience and skill to spot. A trained eye can find animals who are careful to protect themselves through hiding and using camouflage. | Luckily we had a good guide, Estephon. He was constantly scanning the forest and he used bird calls and a telescope to help us see all the creatures that surrounded us. | |
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| These are one of the tiny orchids we saw. They're called Dancing Ladies. I bought some small orchids to bring home tonight at a gift shop. | Look carefully, we saw a Gold Knee tarantula. | |
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| This is a Long Horned Beetle. Our guide took a picture with my camera through the telescope. | Here's a Toucan who was peeping out from a hole in a dead tree. | |
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| This is a Slate Throated Redstart. | Here's its nest and some tiny eggs. They were about the size of green olives. |
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| Last we stopped at the Hummingbird Garden at the entrance to the Cloud Forest. Wow, were there a lot of those little guys! | ||
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