Sleeping Withthe Toucans
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100 GREAT PLACES TO STAY IN COSTA RICA Web Edition v. 2.0 February, 2009; Copyright © 2007 - 2009 HayFields Science Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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Inland from the coast, the high plains of northwest Guanacaste remind us of the mountains of southeastern New Mexico around High Rolls, Cloudcroft and Lincoln County. Billy the Kid country. The hills are dry and brown in “summer” – January through May – and green and lush in the rainy season. There are big cattle ranches and beautiful narrow country roads with no traffic. Folks are friendly and a bit laconic. The wind can howl through the canyons with tremendous force. The difference is that here the big trees are covered with showy pink flowers in January. And the big mountains on the horizon are active volcanoes.
The northwestern volcanoes are not as high as the monsters in the center of the country – Volcán Rincon de la Vieja, at 1,806 meters, would easily fit inside 3,432 meter Irazú – but you’re looking at them from almost sea level, and from there they’re pretty impressive. A sequence of national parks protects the peaks but they’re not contiguous like the parks in the southern mountains and so provide less of a protected corridor for wildlife. The critters are up here, though. The area is not highly populated and even outside the parks there’s lots of open country for animals to roam in.
Aside from the Pacific beaches, northwest Guanacaste is not highly developed for tourism. Lodges tend to cluster around the entrances to the national parks. Rincon de la Vieja (the old woman’s corner, or hideout) is the most popular. It is Costa Rica’s answer to Yellowstone with boiling lakes, boiling pots of thick multi-colored mud, and spouts of hot water and steam surrounding the active Von Seebach Crater and several inactive – or to be safer, one might say “less frequently” active – craters. We’ve heard that the Hacienda Santa Maria, now the park headquarters, used to be a Central American hideaway for Lyndon B. Johnson. It’s easy to see how the harried Texan president would have liked this place. It must have reminded him of home – the quiet of the big open ranches with their cattle and wildflowers. And, in the 1960s, the nearest telephone was miles and miles away.
Farther south past Miravalles, Tenorio National Park extends almost to Lake Arenal and is bordered by private reserves that protect southern lake-view slopes. Most of the park is over the border in the State of Alajuela, and its more eastern location gives it cloudier, wetter weather. Road access is minimal, so few people visit Tenorio. To visit the famous blue waterfalls, take the dirt road toward La Carolina Lodge off Highway 6 just north of Bijagua and turn right at the fork by the little store in the village of San Miguel, following the sign to the cataratas.
If you’re traveling in this area, you’ll probably find yourself in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste and the biggest town around. It’s a good place to stop if you want to check your email; there are several internet cafes around the central plaza. For a quick lunch, try Tinaje, directly across the plaza from the church where you can sit on the porch and watch small-town life passing by. Except for the Spanish, the cell phones and the pickup trucks from Korea, Japan, and China (“Great Wall” brand), you’d think you were in the American midwest, circa 1955.
Curubandé
Keywords: Hiking, Horseback Riding
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:
506-2236-8100 (reservations); 506-2665-0008 (hotel); 506-2665-0011 (fax)
info@aromadecampo.com
www.aromadecampo.com
Essentials:
6 Rooms, Camping on lawn
English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch
Cash only
Secure parking
Breakfast included, Lunch and dinner available, Honor bar
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Internet (in office)
How to get here:
About four km north of Liberia, turn east off Highway 1 toward
Curubandé. Follow the dirt road through Curubandé. Aroma de
Campo is on the left, about two km past the town. If you continue on
this road, you will reach the Las Pailas entrance to Rincon de la Vieja
Park.
The conversation around the big, rough-hewn dinner table was a curious mixture of Spanish, English, and Dutch. We were all heading up to Rincon de la Vieja the following morning and Charlie, who owns Aroma de Campo with his wife, Maureen, pulled out maps, books, and binders full of his own pictures whenever questions came up about things to see or how to get to various places. He will guide the tour himself, especially if it involves Rincon, waterfalls, and horses. He recommended Las Pailas, the three kilometer trail through the forest to the boiling lakes and mud-pots on the western slopes below the steaming Von Seebach Crater, for the first-day’s hiking.
You can stare into the acid-green mire of Poás or gaze at the smoking slopes of Arenal, but for getting up close and personal with a volcano, it’s hard to match the Pailas trail at Rincon de la Vieja. Huge higueron fig trees tower over the rocky path, their narrow buttress roots fanning four or five meters from the main trunks before plunging under ground. Birdsong and the skittering of small creatures is everywhere. Steam billows incongruously from the green woods; as you approach, you hear the hiss of boiling water and realize that the active vents are practically beneath your feet, hidden from view by fallen limbs, undergrowth, and the ubiquitous stones. Miniature craters filled with grey, green, and yellow muck boil away; the air smells heavily of sulfur. The devil, perhaps, indulged in a few too many black beans last night? Dip your hand into the little streams that you cross; the water is warm. Around the next bend you see why as you encounter a frothing, electric blue lake fringed with bright yellow. The ground around looks crusty and fragile with purple and lurid-orange soil. Signs warn that temperatures are well over boiling. Definitely not a place to go wandering off the trail.
Back at Aroma de Campo, our fellow adventurers arrayed themselves in the hammocks and Adirondack chairs on the shaded patio. Chattering in Dutch, three children were having the time of their lives watering the thin grass with paper cups from a big plastic bucket. A diminutive dachshund made improper advances to an aloof Persian cat. Alison browsed in the trading library with its titles in English, Spanish, Dutch, German, French, and Hebrew. I contented myself with a well-earned beer.
Aroma de Campo has six rooms named for the colors that they’re painted. We like the rooms designed for couples – the Purple room on the southeast corner looking toward the volcano and the dawn or the Pink room on the west side with its view of the sunset over the distant Pacific. Blue has bunk beds and Yellow has three singles, perfect for children or budget-minded backpackers. If you’re there on the weekend, you may have a treat – Maureen’s Thai cooking. Otherwise, meals are Costa Rican with a touch of Belgian, good with a dark beer and a conversation in several languages.
Update (February, 2008): Charlie an Maureen have added three new rooms, and are building a natural stone pool down by the river. Now you'll have someplace to cool off after that volcano hike.
San Miguel de Bijagua
Keywords: Honeymoons, Hiking, Horseback Riding
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:Essentials:
4 Rooms, Two 1-BR cabins, One 2-BR cabin
English, Spanish
Cash only
Secure parking
Riverside, Hot tub
All meals included
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Fireplace
How to get here:
Turn east off Highway 1 onto Highway 6 just past the Corobici river
bridge north of Cañas, following sign to Upala. Follow Highway 6
north about one hour to Bijagua. About six km past Bijagua, turn
right onto the dirt road just after the Mirador bar. Follow this road to
the little town of San Miguel; take the left fork right after the bar. La
Carolina is on your right, just before the narrow bridge.
Ah, La Carolina. Easy to get to, but in the middle of nowhere. Family-style, but muy romantico. One of our favorite getaways in all of Costa Rica.
The first thing to do when you get to La Carolina, rain or shine, is to strip down to the minimum necessary, hold hands with your honey, and trot down to the stone pool by the rushing little Chumillo river where a wood-fired iron heater keeps the water a wonderful 100 °F – perfect soaking temperature. We’ve lounged in a lot of hot tubs, and this ranks as one of the best anywhere: deep enough for total immersion, wide enough to do the backstroke, with broad bancos for sitting all the way around, and constructed entirely out of the smooth stones of the river. If you start to cool off, toss some more wood from the pile into the smoking furnace. If you get too warm, it’s over the side into the cold pool right below or into the river itself with its swift currents and waterfalls. After the long drive to get here, this is heaven. They simply don’t make water fresher or better than this.
La Carolina Lodge nestles in the thick forest on the northern border of Tenorio National Park surrounded by a 170-acre working ranch and private reserve. Don and Bill, two surfing buddies from South Carolina, bought the ranch with its old casona (farmhouse) twelve years ago and have restored, refurbished, and reforested with respect for local tradition and a keen eye for comfort. The wonderful hot tub is just the start; in your cabin you’ll find thick blankets (it can be cold up here), big fluffy bath towels, your own fireplace, and plentiful tall candles in coconut-husk candleholders. Flickering kerosene lamps light the paths at night. There are wooden shutters on the windows and wooden pegs for hanging things everywhere you might want one. The perfect mix, says Alison, of yin and yang, comfort and practicality. Frontier Feng Shui here in the mountains of Costa Rica.
The blue waterfalls of the Rio Celeste are only a few kilometers from La Carolina near the border of Tenorio Park. For a shorter walk, just head up the trail along the Chumillo River – La Carolina has a mile of river frontage – through the deep woods and over the ridges on the network of trails and farm roads through the surrounding countryside. Keep a watchful eye out for tiny, red frogs with blue legs. Or hop on one of La Carolina’s horses stabled just around the corner from the main lodge, and persuade Don to show you around the finca.
After a day of soaking, swimming, and roaming the hills, guests gather in the rocking chairs by the roaring outdoor fireplace next to the kitchen where dinner is cooking over wood fires. You’ll eat basic Tico fare at the long table by candlelight. Bring some wine to share with new friends. After dinner the woods are dark and quiet in the soft flickering light with night birds and rushing water. ¡Muy romantico!
Update (February, 2008): Don, Bill and Karien acquired the 415-acre ranch next door and are starting a major native-species reforestation project. Bill's already seen tapir tracks up there!