The southern cordilleras: San Gerardo de Dota and Chirripó

The high country of the south is a cooler, mist-wrapped Costa Rica that surprises many first-time visitors. Around San Gerardo de Dota, the Savegre valley shelters cloud forest, clear rivers and apple orchards, and ranks among the best places in the country to see the resplendent quetzal. Higher still rises the Talamanca massif, crowned by Cerro Chirripó at 3,820 metres, the highest point in Costa Rica. The landscape shifts from oak cloud forest to open páramo near the summit, a habitat found almost nowhere else in the region. Nights are genuinely cold, and clear mornings can offer views toward both the Pacific and the Caribbean. This is a region for hikers, birders and anyone drawn to a slower mountain pace.