A bench returns to nature in the cloud forest in Costa Rica....

We spent this morning hiking the trails of Monteverde Forest Preserve at 4000' elevation on the Continental Divide. Fantastically high ferns, moss-covered trees rising 200' to the sky covered with multiple varieties of orchids and epiphytes. What is an epiphyte? A plant that lives on its host in a non-parasitic relationship, that is it draws its minerals and water from the clouds and mist in the air.