Costa Rica - Primary Rain Forest
This was a great trip with Serendipity. The activities were very challenging, but that made getting through them even more rewarding. I'm walking away from this trip feeling better about myself! — Mary B., Darien, CT, August, 2005
Costa Rica rain forest - what's the significance of "primary"?
Suspended from the lowest branches of this giant ceiba tree is Serendipity's nature platform, 110 feet above the ground, and just eye-level at the top of the canopy.
There are major differences between a rainforest, a cloud forest, a primary rainforest, and a secondary rainforest.
Most of the thousands or rainforests in Costa Rica are secondary — younger trees, dense undergrowth, newer vegetation (average tree age of about 40 years). Secondary rainforests grow where the primary rainforest has been destroyed — by man, or by Mother Nature in floods, gravity-induced landslides, wind storms, or (unlikely in the tropics) lightning fires. A secondary rainforest does not feel very different from a Michigan or New England woods, except the species are different.
The primary rainforest is more difficult to find — almost none remains in Costa Rica outside the Osa Peninsula. The primary rainforest is the classic jungle of Tarzan movies — huge trees, a vast, cavernous canopy, vines hanging from massive branches. The primary forest has remained undisturbed for about 1,000 years. Both the primary and secondary rainforests are habitat for thousands of species of animals, but visibility in the primary rainforest is easier because the canopy is more "vaulting".
A Virgin forest simply means that only nature has tampered — no man-created changes. It does not necessarily mean the forest we all picture in our minds from Tarzan movies — tall magnificent trees, vines thick enough to support swinging from branch to branch.
Cloud forest is cool evergreen forest that is frequently blanketed in low level clouds. Because it is generally found at high elevation, it is ecologically remote from nearby cloud forests.
