Monteverde, Costa Rica is a little town area in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Situated in the Cordillera de Tilarán, roughly a four hour drive from the Central Valley of Costa Rica, Monteverde is considered a major ecotourism destination in Costa Rica. The region is perhaps best known for the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde and numerous other reserves, which draw considerable numbers of tourists and naturalists interested in mountain and tropical biodiversity.

In Newsweek's One Hundred Places to Remember before They Disappear, Monteverde appears as the Americas' #Fourteen. It has also been deemed one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica by popular vote, and has been called by National Geographic "the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves".

History

Various pre-Columbian artifacts give evidence to the longtime tenancy of the Monteverde region by a small population of Clovis Native Americans, who once farmed in villages circa 3000 BC. Between roughly 3300 BC to 2000 BC, the nearby tribes of the Arenal region experienced a population decline. These nearby tribes re-established villages in the area between 2000 BC to 500 BC. Agriculture intensified in the 500 BC to AD 300 period, with chiefdom societies replacing small tribal societies. Intense deforestation accompanied horticulture, and sandstone foundations dating to this period can be found. Jade objects became prominent characteristics of these villages. From AD 300 to 800, complex chiefdoms supplanted simpler chiefdoms and more intricate villages appear, with cemeteries, public squares, gold-work and inter-tribal trade and conflict. Around 1300, a general decline in population occurred, possibly due to Arenal Volcano's increased activity.

When the Spanish arrived in 1502, Costa Rica tolerated 2 productions of warfare. Nationwide indigenous inhabitants fell from an estimated 400x1000 to 80x1000 within small more than 50 years. However, unlike Costa Rica's neighbors, Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica did not seem to harbor too much gold for the Spanish and so the country was less ravished by colonization than other Latin American countries.