Monteverde

Its origins go back to 1951, when a group of American Quakers moved to Costa Rica to escape military service at home, drawn by the fact that the country had abolished its army in 1948. They settled at Monteverde and, concerned to protect the area's watersheds, gave part of their land in 1972 to create the present biological reserve, run ever since by the Tropical Science Centre. It is one of the best places in the world to watch the resplendent quetzal, a bird sacred to the ancient Maya and Aztecs whose tail plumes, up to a metre long, were worth more than gold in pre-Columbian times.