With winter approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought now would be a good time to share a gallery of photos of flowers from Monteverde.
Generally the flowers here are small and often easy to miss among all the lush greenery. But they are so colorful and take so many different shapes that I am endlessly fascinated.
(And before you ask, I don’t know the names of most of these other than the obvious hibiscus and bougainvillea! All the field guides in our house are for animals, birds, and insects. Nothing for us poor plant-lovers!)
Of all the animals I have encountered in Costa Rica, I think the coati (or coatimundi) might be the most surprising. How did I go through my whole life without knowing of the existence of these guys? Well, in fact I haven’t… many moons ago I visited Iguazu Falls in South America and they are positively ubiquitous there. But I had forgotten about them until I came back here. And in any case, the one here, which is called a pizote in Spanish, is a different species from the one in Brazil. “Our” species is the White-nosed coati. See? Their noses are white.
They’re everywhere in Monteverde. In the rainforest, you might see a group of 15 to 20 together, rooting around in the leaves. Lynnette and I went walking in Bajo del Tigre Reserve yesterday and happened upon a big troop on both sides of the trail. They were entirely uninterested in our presence. Here’s a bit of evidence of how uninterested they are in the two-legs (sorry, I’m no cinematographer, but I did take these videos myself…):
But they’re not exclusive to the forest. As a matter of fact, they’re a bit like raccoons in that they are perfectly willing to approach human habitats. As in, say, the habitat which is our deck. We made the mistake of leaving a big bunch of bananas on our deck when we left town for a few days and when we came back… let’s just say it was no longer a “bunch” of bananas.
I got some footage of one fellow who unfortunately had a bad leg:
Felt pretty bad for him. He’s definitely not the only one to have visited us, though.
Anyway, even though I see them around a lot, I don’t know much about them. So I figured I would look up some info, learn a bit, and write it up here. Lucky you! Behold! Coati Frequently Asked Questions!
The Coati FAQ
Where do they live?
The White-nosed coati lives from Mexico to the southern end of Panama. It is apparently not terribly interested in South America!
Wikipedia states that the White-nosed Coati can eat all kinds of stuff. “The white-nosed coati is an omnivore and forages mostly on the ground for small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, snakes, and eggs.” In other words, anything it can get its grubby paws on. Including our bananas. And our compost.
What eats them?
They actually have a lot of predators, including big cats, snakes, and raptors:
Coati predators include jaguarundis, anacondas, pumas, maned wolves, boa constrictors, foxes, dogs, tayras, ocelots, and jaguars. Large raptors, such as ornate hawk-eagles, black-and-chestnut eagles, and harpy eagles, also are known to hunt them. White-headed capuchin monkeys hunt their pups.Wikipedia
What other animals are they related to?
Wikipedia contributors. “Procyonidae.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2025. Web. 8 Nov. 2025.
This is actually a rather interesting topic: apparently until recently coatis were considered to be most closely related to raccoons, but genetic studies have caused this to be revised; they are now one step closer to nutty little guys called olingos.
If you play video of them in reverse do they turn into Brontosauri?
During my school break in October our family traveled to La Fortuna, a town near the Arenal Volcano.
To get there, we took a bus from Monteverde down to the edge of Lake Arenal, and then took a boat across the lake. From there we got our first views of the Arenal Volcano! How impressive!
The Arenal Volcano is a young volcano, meaning it is less than 7,500 years old. It was most recently active from 1968 to 2010.
We went for a hike at the National Park at the foot of the volcano. It is illegal to hike to the top of the volcano because of dangerous gases and venemous snakes!
We hiked out to the viewing point where you can see magma (an old lava flow from an eruption in 1992). From here you can also look down and see Lake Arenal.
On our hike up to the lava flow, we saw a lot of cool animals and plants, including these bugs that my dad took pictures of.
We heard a really strange sounding bird call, and it turned out to be a Montezuma Oropendola which we sadly didn’t get a photo of. But then, we spotted a couple toucans in the trees! Another hiker (a retired nature guide) told us they were yellow-breasted toucans, the largest species in Costa Rica.
We also saw many different flowers and berries, often quite small and hidden pops of color along the trail!
If you ever come to Costa Rica, don’t miss seeing Lake Arenal and the Volcano! We highly recommend a trip to the National Park, and maybe you’ll have better luck than we did seeing the peak of the volcano emerge from the clouds!
Check out this short video of a capuchin monkey jumping through the trees with a baby riding on her back! This was recorded in Bajo del Tigre reserve on September 11, 2025.
It was pouring rain and blowing wind when we woke up, but by the time breakfast was over, it had cleared up, so I went for a walk. A 15-minute walk from our house is the Bajo del Tigre Reserve, which is part of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. This is a 57,000-acre preserve that is run by the non-profit Monteverde Conservation League that was established in the 1980’s.
A map of the reserves around MonteverdeA very tall tree in Bajo Tigre reserve
I took a 2 km loop on well-marked trails, mostly downhill on the way out and then uphill on the way back. I didn’t see anyone else on the trails, just the trees, which were alive in the wind, each whispering or speaking or shouting in their own particular rustle. I took lots of pictures of the trees, many with ficus (strangler vines) growing around them that will eventually kill the tree, leaving a hollow structure.
A view across the valleyAn enormous ficus tree
Inspired by this connection of life and death, I began to look at trees that had fallen and to stumps – each nurturing so much other life, even in their decay. This one stump was even still working with roots deep in the soil to hold back a hillside.
A decaying tree trunkA stumpMoss on a tree
I only caught glimpses of the fauna of the forest. The only animal I saw fully was a brown squirrel who wasn’t at all shy, sitting on the trunk of a tree and scolding me as I approached. His scolding startled another creature in the underbrush, which I think was a Highland Tinamou (after I spotted one on another hike). They are hard to see unless you catch one in motion, as they blend in with the colors of the forest floor.
On a side note, we have spotted capuchin monkeys, although just in our everyday life out-and-about in the community, rather than in the forest. Pat saw this one doing a high-wire balancing act! I saw another pair right behind the coffee shop in the community center, jumping from branch to branch.
This cappuchin monkey was walking across a powerline over the main road downtown.Monkeys come pretty close to people, to the point that they are sometimes problematic!
On my hike, I also spotted lots of butterflies, moths, and other winged insects. The only one I knew the name for was the blue morpho. We see these beautiful big butterflies every time we take a walk, and their flight is a captivating fluttering from the brilliant blue of their top wings to the camouflage dark brown and grey of the wings’ undersides.
A blue morphoThese guys are everywhere in Monteverde.
But the most riveting part of the walk were the bird songs – I didn’t see a single one, but I heard many! The Pajaro Campana (three-wattled bell-bird) in particular followed my steps for a long stretch. Their call begins with a low croak, then steps up, almost like an arpeggio. The third note is a high-pitched and piercing whistle that can be heard for miles. Although I searched the trees, I never spotted one. Later the next week when I went back with Patrick and Sophie, he went off on a slightly longer trail by himself and made this amazing video of a bell-bird where you can see and hear it vocalizing.
The three-wattled bellbird is one of the loudest birds in the world!
I look forward to returning often to this beautiful place and hope I can spot the Pajaro Campana myself before the year is out!
🚨 Update! On Monday, August 25, I returned for another walk in Bajo del Tigre, and following advice to look for the Pajaro Campana on dead branches, I managed to spot the bird twice! The second time he wasn’t very high up and I had to walk – very quietly – almost underneath where he was perched, so I got a really good look. When I described these locations to the staff, they said these were two of the three preferred spots of one particular bird, who has a triangle of terrain he covers. So if you come to visit, we can take a walk in Bajo del Tigre together and maybe, if we are lucky, we will spot the Pajaro Campana again!
