Finca Santa Elena de Monteverde is located in Monteverde only a few minutes away from the center of Santa Elena. It is a small town and about a four-hour drive up into the Cordillera de Tilarán mountain range from the Central Valley of Costa Rica and a major tourist destination, primarily visited by ecotourists drawn by the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde and several other reserves. Here you find several grocery stores, banks, restaurants, medics and souvenir shops. Resting roughly at 1400 meters above sea level, Monteverde is misty and windy, with a mean annual temperature of 18° Celsius or 64.4 Fahrenheit . Annual rainfall averages around 3,000 millimetres (118 in). Humidity oscillates between 74% to 97%. Tourism is a growing sector in Monteverde\\\\\\\'s economy. Having grown from less than a hundred yearly visitors in 1975 to around 50,000 in the mid-1990s to 250,000 in recent years, much of the economy is becoming increasingly dependent on tourism. An increase in hotels, taxis, guides, and other tourist-geared services have appeared since the early 1990s. Two bilingual schools have been founded to provide the English essential for catering to Monteverde\\\\\\\'s many visitors. There are several serpentariums, insect museums, butterfly gardens and other zoological attractions in the area. A surge in these types of attractions has occurred within the last five years. Zip lines and suspension bridges through surrounding forest have also become popular. Other activities include horseback riding and mountain biking. Monteverde is also frequented by researchers and naturalists who study mountain and tropical biodiversity. In Newsweek\\\\\\\'s 100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear, Monteverde appears as the Americas\\\\\\\' #14. It has also been deemed one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica by popular vote, and has been called by National Geographic \\\\"the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves\\\\". |