Private Children's Eternal Rainforest (BEN) Trekking Expedition

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Children’s Eternal Rainforest (BEN) is Costa Rica’s largest private reserve and hotspot for biodiversity, ecotourism, birdwatching and hiking trails. The reserve was founded by donations from children in 44 countries and it is run by a nonprofit conservation organization: The Monteverde Conservation League. Located on the Caribbean slope at about 720 meters above sea level, this premontane rainforest is dense and rich with epiphytes and a wide variety of resident and migrant birds, frogs, reptiles, and mammals. The station offers an ideal base from which to explore the surrounding rainforest and is open year-round for tourists, student groups, and researchers. Pocosol Station at BEN’s provides an unmatched opportunity to get off the beaten tourist track and into the heart of Costa Rica’s rainforest. The station is open year-round and is accessible from L Fortuna. Pocosol is one of the BEN’s two field stations nestled deep in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest allowing visitors to experience firsthand the biodiversity and scenic beauty of the tropical rainforest including the rare bare-necked umbrellabird (Cephalopterus glabricollis) endemic to Costa Rica and western Panama. The nearby trails contain different routes along primary and secondary forest as well as regenerating pastures. The site has a variety of habitats and wonders such as a 3.8-hectare natural lagoon, a waterfall and steaming mud vents (fumaroles). The forest type is catalogued as pre-montane rainforest, this is an evergreen forest with abundant epiphytes and a dense understory. Due to its low altitude and proximity to a transitional cloud forest, Pocosol has a unique biological diversity, forest structure, scenic beauty and spectacular views of the Peñas Blancas Valley.