Monteverde - City of Costa Rica

Monteverde, Costa Rica is a small town in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. It is often considered a major tourist destination in Costa Rica, primarily frequented by ecotourists drawn by the high biodiversity of its numerous reserves, the most famous of which is the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde. This article deals with Monteverde and its surrounding zone. This includes the larger hub of Santa Elena, as well as numerous reserves and attractions.

Monteverde is humid, misty and cloudy, with temperatures ranging from 15 to 22° Celsius .Annual rainfall averages around 3,000 millimetres.

Various indigenous artifacts, such as pots, containers, ceramics and grinders suggest a small population of Clovis Native Americans once farmed in villages in the Monteverde area, around 3000 BC. Around 3300 BC to 2000 BC, the nearby tribes of the Arenal area experienced a population decline.

On March 8, 2005, a group of four armed men and an accomplice raided and attempted to rob the Monteverde branch of the state National Bank . A guard killed two of the armed men. However, the other three held all the people inside the bank hostage for hours. The police intervened in the situation, ending the siege. Nine civilians died and only one of the attackers survived. This event raised tensions between Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans nationwide and prompted use of higher security in many national banks.

In recent years rapidly increasing numbers of tourists has brought a sizeable influx of Costa Ricans into the area. Now, an estimated 250,000 tourists visit Monteverde a year. Improved goods and services, including partially paved roads, have arrived in recent years. In 2007, Costa Ricans voted Monteverde one of Costa Rica's Seven Wonders, along with Isla del Coco, Tortuguero, Arenal Volcano, Cerro Chirripó, Rio Celeste and Poás Volcano.

In 1951, the Quakers constructed a Quaker meeting hall, which served as a general store as well as classrooms.This became known as the Monteverde Friends School and has since become a small private school, accredited by the government of Costa Rica. From grades pre-K through 2, classes are bilingual, mostly in Spanish, while from grades 3 through 12, instruction is largely in English, with students required to take social studies and literature courses in both Spanish and English.

There are several public schools, including the Escuela Sta. Elena, the Escuela Cerro Plano and the Escuela San Luis.

The Colegio San Rafael and Colegio Técnico Professional are responsible for the majority of secondary education in the area.

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.