This book tells the story of the Las Nubes Biological Reserve through stunning photos and accompanying text from its York University beginnings until today. “Las Nubes is Spanish for ‘the clouds’, and Las Nubes Biological Reserve is a place where the opportunity for discovery is as limitless as the sky.” There are 200 photographs by nature photographer Brett Cole of everything colourful, strange and wonderful that thrives and fights for life amid the towering rainforests from birds, such as the Golden-hooded Tanager, flowers like the Apostle’s Iris and fig trees, to the Morpho butterfly, a caterpillar dotted with parasites, and spiders and shiny-backed beetles. Cole was commissioned “to capture the fragile, but diverse ecosystem at Las Nubes”. And capture it he did, showing a glimpse of the rich diversity of the 124 hectares of protected rainforest on the Pacific slopes of the Talamanca Mountains in southern Costa Rica. It was this piece of rainforest that was donated to York University by Dr. M.M. (Woody) Fisher in 1998. “Hundreds of our undergraduate and graduate students have been able to do fieldwork at Las Nubes. York University is committed to social justice and that is embodied in its fair trade Las Nubes coffee, which is grown by local farmers in shaded coffee farms.”

Available at YorkU Bookstore