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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South of Cartago, the Cordillera Talamanca rises up as a steep, twisted spine of mountains that runs all the way down into Panama. The Interamericana Highway, called Highway 2 south of San José, begins its long ascent into the mountains almost as soon as you get out of town. The high pass of the Cerro de la Muerte, the Mountain of Death, where travelers on foot from the Pacific coast used to regularly freeze to death in their bare feet and light clothing, tops out at almost 3,500 meters – over 11,000 feet – above sea level. From here the highway descends to San Isidro El General, the Rio General valley, and the Pacific coastal plain, but the mountains continue marching south and east until they become the Andes in Colombia.
The high ranges of the Talamancas are almost all protected by a series of mostly-contiguous reserves and national parks ending in the huge Parque Internacional La Amistad (International Friendship Park) that extends across the border into western Panama. Almost no one lives in the high mountains, and even the lower slopes have been settled by European-descended people only relatively recently. It’s easy to meet folks whose parents were homesteaders.
Very little of the mountain wilderness has been developed for tourism, and there are relatively few places to stay in the Talamancas unless you are willing to camp. The densest cluster of lodges is in the narrow valley of San Gerardo de Dota where Efrain Chacón started a fishing lodge on his farm in the early 1970s and quetzal watchers followed the trout fishermen. The drive into this valley, where the Savegre River begins its tumble to the Pacific, is always worth it just for the fabulous views – the good chance of seeing quetzals is a bonus.
The highest peak in Costa Rica, 3,820-meter Cerro Chirripó, rises just northeast of San Isidro El General (also called Perez Zeledón), the largest town in the area. Chirripó National Park covers most of the mountain and serves as a corridor between Tapantí National Park to the north and Amistad to the south. Several lodges cluster in the valley of the Chirripó River which joins the Talari to form Rio El General. Access to the park is from the little mountain town of San Gerardo de Rivas, not to be confused – though some do, to their chagrin – with San Gerardo de Dota, a good two hours to the north.
Far to the south almost to the border with Panama is the farming town of San Vito founded by Italians in the mid-19th century. It is the gateway to the southern part of the Amistad Park. We’ve not made it down to San Vito yet, but we have friends who like it so well they’re building a house there. The Wilson Gardens and nearby Amistad Lodge are reported to be very nice and great for seeing birds and mammals as well as plants.
Be careful driving in the Talamancas and don’t even think about driving them at night. There are lots of trucks on Highway 2, sometimes barely inching along and sometimes without much in the way of lights. There are shockingly tight curves, steep descents (especially from the high pass to El General), and the fog can be so thick you can’t see the road surface in front of you. Typical of Costa Rica, there are no places to pull over, so when conditions are especially bad, traffic just stops. Drive with care!
Copey de Dota
Keywords: Hiking, Birding
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:Essentials:
6 Rooms
English, Spanish
All major credit cards accepted
Secure parking
Birding tours available
Breakfast, lunch and dinner available (extra charges for each)
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private outdoor space
How to get here:
Driving south from Cartago, turn west off Highway 2 onto the dirt
road across from the yellow church at kilometer 58, seven km past
Empalme. Following the dirt road you will reach a small village with
a church and soccer field. Bear right at the soccer field. Copey is
seven km from Highway 2; when you reach it, cross the bridge, then
turn left following a sign to El Toucanet. The lodge will be on your
right.
The sound of running water permeates everything. El Toucanet Lodge sits right above the rushing Rio Pedregoso which drains the northwestern basin of 3,156 meter Vueltas Peak on the western edge of the Talamanca Range. The water tumbles down its rocky gorge in continuous series of little waterfalls, its music a constant presence day and night.
Most people come to El Toucanet in the northwest corner of the Los Santos Forest Reserve to see Resplendent Quetzals, trogons, and toucanets. We saw lots of hummingbirds but no quetzals; what we did find is that this is paradise for hikers. Little-used farmers’ roads snake up the river gorges or switchback over the surrounding ridges. The rocky slopes have been cleared here and there, but most of the land is covered with high-altitude deciduous forest. Bromeliads and thick coats of lichen cover the branches; ferns and yuccas compete with rhododendrons for space in the understory. The air has the strong, deep smell of wet trees in the bright sun, with patches of heavy flower fragrances. At almost 2,000 meters, it’s fresh and brisk in the crystal-blue morning, cool in the rainy afternoon, and downright nippy at night. It’s like the woods of the northern Appalachians, but with a soft scent of tropical vegetation and crisp air from the Rockies.
El Toucanet offers six simple-but-comfortable rooms, each with a private deck overlooking the river, and a family cabin. Two additional cabins, each with a fireplace and private jacuzzi, were under construction in late 2006. Meals are served in the crescent-shaped dining room with its wall of windows to let in light and the sound of the river or on the deck outside. A big fireplace, couches, bookshelves, and small bar occupy one end of the room. Dinner is served on request. We were lucky enough to have local fresh trout, with just a slice of lemon tucked inside. Delicious!
Your host Gary, who owns El Toucanet with his wife Edna, will take you out in search of quetzals at 7 a.m. and bring you back in time for breakfast. You can hike from here up to the striking scrubby wetland of the Vueltas paramó, the northernmost example of a landscape and ecosystem more common in the Andes. Gary tells us you can even walk to Manuel Antonio on back roads and jeep trails. It takes two or three days and you’ll need a guide. We consider this, and decide that in this country we’d want a few horses as well.
El Toucanet at night is perfectly quiet except for the night birds and the constant song of the river. The sky is blacker and the stars brighter than anywhere we’ve stayed previously in Costa Rica. It’s November; Andromeda and her distant galaxy are straight overhead. It’s time for Alison’s fleece boots.
Update (March, 2008): Gary and Edna have added two new cabins. Friends who've stayed there say they're really nice.
San Gerardo de Dota
Keywords: Hiking, Birding
Photo © Dantica
Contact Information:Essentials:
One 1-BR cabin, Two 2-BR cabins
English, Spanish, Dutch
All major credit cards accepted
Secure parking
Birding tours available, Gallery
Breakfast included, Restaurants nearby
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Coffee maker, Refrigerator/minibar, TV,
Private outdoor space, Internet in office. Cabin #1 has a full
kitchen.
How to get here:
Driving south from Cartago, turn west off Highway 2 at kilometer 80
onto the road to San Gerardo de Dota. Follow this road four km
downhill. Dantica will be on your right.
The deep valley of San Gerardo de Dota is famous for its quetzals, and one flew across the road right in front of us as we were driving down from Dantica. Barely avoiding strangling herself with the seatbelt, Alison jumped out of her seat and scrambled for her camera as I stopped the car. The quetzal sat proudly on a high limb of an oak tree that branched over the road, fluttering his long tail at us, daring Alison to get a decent shot from below. After a few minutes of turning this way and that sparkling in the noonday sun, he tired of the game and disappeared into the trees. We were stunned. They really are beautiful, almost beyond imagining. Even the very best photographs don’t come close.
Dantica is San Gerardo de Dota’s brand-new lodge, built by Colombian designer, Maria, and Dutch biologist-turned-art-collector, Joost. It is a perfect marriage of traditional and contemporary – plain white walls with antique wooden doors and shutters on the side facing the road, floor-to-ceiling single-pane glass walls looking out over the valley on the other side. A network of trails leads steeply downhill through Dantica’s ten hectares of primary forest to the fast-running little river below. From your private deck or from the glass-walled bedrooms, you look out over the forest canopy across the canyon to the hills beyond. Mornings and evenings the canyon fills with mist and birdsong. Joost has planted hundreds of almond trees on the property to attract the quetzals.
A bonus of staying at Dantica is Joost and Maria’s gallery of Central and South American folk and fine art. Here you can find paintings, wood and fabric art from many countries, colorful baskets, reproductions of pre-Colombian jewelry, even toys for children. Several pieces are gifts from artists and could easily be in museums. There are lots of folk-art souvenir shops in Costa Rica, nearly all of them the same. We’ve found very few galleries with a wide selection of truly interesting art and no others with the international coverage that Dantica offers. It’s worth the drive down to Dantica just to browse. We certainly couldn’t pass it up; Alison selected a pair of gold earrings with an ancient design from a burial mound in Colombia. I found a lightweight traditional Colombian hat.
Dantica does not serve meals other than breakfast, although a guests-only dinner service is planned for the near future. In the evening we hiked with our fellow guests a half-kilometer up the road to Mirian who serves generous home-made dinners on her enclosed patio. The special that night was fresh local trout, beautifully prepared and accompanied by vegetables and salad, white rice and black beans – country cooking at its best. The valley below was filled with cloud. Above, the stars were bright in a crystal-clear sky. A full moon was rising over the mountain behind us and the air was cool and sharp with the deep smell of thousands of trees.
Update (March, 2008): Joost and Maria have added five new bungalows for couples, all with full-wall picture windows looking out on the forest at canopy level. Breakfast from Dantica's café and dinner from Marian can be served in your bungalow, which is especially nice at night if you don't feel like hiking up the road to Mirian's place. Joost has also added nearly 4 km of hiking trails, providing a route from the bungalows down to the tumbling young Savegre river and along the river to the main San Gerardo road or back up to the lodge. The trails are steep, but well marked and maintained.
San Gerardo de Rivas
Keywords: Hiking, Yoga/Meditation
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:Essentials:
8 Rooms, 2 Casitas, 1 House
English, Spanish
Cash only
Secure parking
Riverfront, Swimming pool, Yoga facilities
Breakfast and dinner served on request, Restaurants nearby
Room Amenities: Free WiFi, Semi-private or private outdoor space
How to get here:
In San Isidro El General, turn east off Highway 2 after the Maxi
Bodega, just past the bridge. The paved road ends in Rivas. Turn
right onto the dirt road that heads up the hill at the eastern edge of
town. Follow this road toward San Gerardo de Rivas and Chirripó
National Park. Rio Chirripó B&B will be on your right, just past the
village of Canaán.
Frank Faiella meets us at the gate, makes us coffee, and can’t wait to show us the moss-covered network of stone walls, grottos, and huge boulders down below the swimming pool, just above the swirling waters of the Rio Chirripó. It looks like an ancient city built by dwarves – the old-world kind out of Tolkein or German legend. The striking pagoda of the new meditation and yoga center towers above us on the ridge.
We can’t help thinking of this as “Frank’s Place” – in part because Frank periodically changes the name, but mainly because staying here is so much like staying with old friends. The Rio Chirripó B&B is Frank’s ongoing architectural fantasy merging the dense high-altitude forest, the house-sized boulders and the pounding river with human structures in an eclectic but intriguing blend of styles. The old stone walls and barely-visible altars were the work of a previous owner, a great labor for who knows what purpose. Now they counterpoint the yoga center and maybe a new cabin or two will fit in as well. The huge, umbrella-shaped rancho with its rounded, half-high walls, circle of bancos with bright Guatemalan pillows, and blue-chimneyed fireplace looks like Santa Fe, New Mexico. The enormous kitchen with colorful tile walls and countertops came from Mexico, and the dining room with its arches could be Moroccan. Nichos are everywhere, housing Buddhas or saints; the Virgin of Guadalupe smiles benignly onto the dining tables. Every surface sports painted filigree, the work of an American artist who arrived one day by motorcycle just when Frank and his building-buddy Mick were wondering how to decorate the place.
The Rio Chirripó has eight rooms, simple in a Zen way, arranged in two 2-story casitas with each pair of rooms sharing a porch or balcony overlooking the river. The beds have colorful Guatemalan spreads, there are rocking chairs on the porch, and the view over the river is great. There are two private one-bedroom casitas, one just below the pool and the other in the rock garden, and the airy yoga center with its wall of floor-to-ceiling windows can be used for sleeping in a pinch. Many of Rio Chirripó’s guests come for yoga and meditation retreats, but we came for the mountain air, the rock, and the rivers. You are just a few kilometers from the gates of both Chirripó National Park and adjacent Cloud Bridge Reserve. Cerro Chirripó itself, with its ragged ridge of bare rock, dominates the eastern sky. Rustic hot springs are just a 30-minute walk up the road toward the little town of Herradura, and the crashing confluence of the Chirripó and Talari rivers on their way to form the General and the mighty Terraba beyond is right below your feet.
Update (February, 2008): Frank and Ori have finally decided on a name: Rio Chirripo Retreat Center. They're renting it by the week to yoga and wellness groups, wedding and reunion parties, and other groups of 8 - 20 people. So get your friends together and plan a retreat - there's no better place to get away from it all.
Update (February, 2009): Frank and Ori are renting to individual travelers again, after a year of hosting only groups. They've also rebuilt their guestrooms, adding large picture windows looking out to the river. Their former 1-bedroom casita is now available in addition to the guest rooms and river-side cabin. The river, the yoga and the meals are still wonderful!