I’m happy to announce that the trip report photo book from my visit to El Silencio Lodge is finished and now available for you to preview electronically for free or order a copy if you like! 🙂 It’s 60 pages with 97 photos of a truly incredible place! See it in my Blurb Bookstore at https://www.blurb.com/b/10309436-el-silencio.
Feature photo is front cover and the back cover is below:
“God is the friend of Silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence . . .
The villas are different ages as they were added through the years with mine one of the older ones I think but an excellent “Suite” style with open living room, bedroom with King Bed and a huge bathroom with separate little room for toilet plus outside door to my outside Jacuzzi Hot Tub in total privacy but still looking up at the trees. Then there was the great deck/porch or terrace it is called here with great forest views and a place to relax in the outdoors, even in the rain with its roof! I walked almost everywhere but did use their free golf cart transportation to return from dinner at night and to take me and my bags back to office to check out on last day where their driver just moved my bags from the cart to Walter’s van that was waiting. Great service in absolutely everything! And that is what makes a great lodge! 🙂
Living Room
Bedroom
Bathroom
Minibar-Kitchenette, frig, microwave, coffee, etc.
Jacuzzi Outside off the Bath
Jacuzzi
Porch – Deck – Terrace
Golf Cart right up to steps!
On hill in forest – very private
Seen from below
Towel-heating device! Wow!
Fresh Flowers daily in bath!
But the best thing about El Silencio Lodge was the attitude of the employees! They treated me so special every moment of every day that I can’t help but like them! 🙂
“Our attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us.”
I have not always made trees a priority when capturing nature photos, but I must in the future! They are the giants of nature! Along with being beauties, like the fern trees and some flowering trees! I didn’t do the best job this time, since around some of the waterfalls are some of the biggest and most beautiful trees and I was just focusing on the falls. A new goal for the future! 🙂 Most of these were around the lodge. —CLICK an image to enlarge . . .
I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.
—Henry David Thoreau
¡Pura Vida!
I need to add a Trees Gallery. For now my FLORA & FOREST Gallery will have to do (with a few trees in it). And several of my “Trip Galleries” have tree photos.
Some wonder what I do with a whole week at one of these very remote nature lodges I visit all over Costa Rica – well, a week is almost never enough time for me to see, experience and photograph all there is in these natural wonders! First priority at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve was waterfalls, then birds, butterflies, and on it goes through nature! Today’s collection is some of those little things like an ear-shaped lichen or a fiddlehead – the furled fronds of a young fern that were the inspiration of some of the colorful Oxcart designs used in this lodge and on the famous Oxcarts of Costa Rica. Enjoy a slide show of those and 23 other designs from nature . . .
Lichen
Lichen
Plant
Leaves
Spear plant?
Airplant
Moss
Ferns
Berries
Airplant
Leaves
Leaves
Bud
Seeds or Berries?
Moss
Plant
Plant
Leaf
Leaf
Ear Lichen
Lichen
Lichen
?
Fiddlehead of a fern
?
Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. —John Lubbock
Silent at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve in Costa Rica and all are wild flowers with only 3 of these having been planted and cultivated near the buildings. CLICK an image to enlarge.
“A flower does not use words to announce its arrival to the world; it just blooms.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
It was raining every night at El Silencio Lodge, so waiting would not have helped! 🙂 But I enjoy night hikes that are provided in most Costa Rica wilderness lodges and you do see thing not normally seen in the day time. We saw less on this one because of the rain and that also made photography with only a cell phone not super good, but here’s 6 shots that are samples of even more we would have seen if not raining. Daniel was my guide on this hike and he included two miradors (vistas) which were interesting at night and sorry I did not try to photograph the views, though again the rain made it more difficult with less moonlight and no stars. CLICK image to enlarge . . .
Cloud Forest Anole
Tiny Frog Unidentified
Cloud Forest Anole
Strange Insect Unidentified
Red-Knee Tarantula
“Letter Tree”
“Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.” ~John Muir
¡Pura Vida!
You might also like my Amphibians Gallery, most of which were photographed on Night Hikes all over Costa Rica! 🙂
I got photos of only 5 species of butterflies during my week at El Silencio Lodge and Reserve, all new to me and difficult to identify – with 2 still unidentified! I also saw a lot of Blue Morphos and Yellows but simply too fast-moving – never stopping for a photo! CLICK an image to see it larger.
White-chain Oxeo
Unidentified – similar to Splendid Mapwing
Harmony Satyr
Harmony Satyr
Orange Mapwing
Orange Mapwing
Unidentified Ticlear or Heliconian
Butterflies at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve – September 2020
The El Silencio Hummingbird Garden is like mine, no feeders, just flowers. And also like mine, there is a dominant hummingbird species that chases many of the others away from the garden and they just go to other flowers on the grounds. I only found three species in the official Hummingbird Garden, though I saw, but did not photograph, others around the grounds. Their dominant bird here is the Purple-throated Mountain Gem, but the tiny Scintillant and the Black-bellied Hummingbirds seem to hang in there with the Mountain Gems! And I photographed bees here! 🙂
CLICK an image to see larger:
Welcome Sign
Purple-throated Mountain Gem
Scintillant Hummingbird
Black-bellied Hummingbird
View from Inside the Hummingbird Garden
I visited the Hummingbird Garden only twice.
I still have 10 other bird species I photographed and hope to post soon. See also my CR Birds photo gallery for all I have photographed here in 5.5 years. The Black-bellied Hummingbird and Scintillant are “lifers” for me and I got 2 other lifers in the next batch of 10 birds I will post soon. 4 lifers in one trip is very good now with my CR count up to 349! 🙂
I finally got to seeing the waterfalls here on the hotel property and they fabulous! There is a “Waterfall Trail” which including the walk from my villa is 6 km round trip and thus I kept putting it off until my last full day here. For those considering a stay here, it is an uphill walk on the gravel road to the trail head but they will take you that far in one of the golf carts.
The waterfall trail is fairly easy with some hills except for Catarata La Promesa (The Promise Waterfall) which is an uphill climb from the main trail on its own side trail that includes steps, maybe 30 or 40, I didn’t count. BUT it is worth it! It is maybe the tallest and some would say the most beautiful and it is out in the open more than the other two, meaning easier to see and photograph without climbing over rocks. And there are two picnic tables there to make it your rest stop or picnic lunch before returning back to the hotel. And possibly a swim there!
The main trail goes over a bridge in front of Catarata La Melodía (The Melody Waterfall) which is the first one you come to. You can see and photograph it from the bridge or to get closer you climb over some rocks and get right to the bottom of the falls. Then just a short way past that first falls is a Y in the trail with two dead ends, one to Catarata El Silencio (The Silence Waterfall) straight ahead and up the steps and hill to La Promesa. They are all three beautiful and full of water during the rainy season. Not sure I have a favorite.
Melody Waterfall
El Silencio Waterfall
The Promise Waterfall
3 Great Falls on Property! CLICK image to enlarge.
I will say that many of the lodges I’ve visited all over Costa Rica have one or more waterfall on their property, but few as beautiful as these. Well . . . the one falls at Arenal Observatory is as big or bigger and as beautiful, but there are 3 such beauties here at El Silencio Lodge! And then Hacienda Guachipelín at Rincón de la Vieja National Park has 3 falls as beautiful on their property, so I’m backing down a little on their brag! 🙂 And another favorite hotel, Xandari Alajuela has 3 waterfalls but they aren’t as big or as beautiful as these.
Actually there are technically 7 falls at El Silencio with 4 “lesser water” waterfalls used only for those who rappel down the falls and that is the only way to see them, but one of the guides said I’m not missing much. 🙂 That is one of the many optional activities here and you rappel down all four of those! But not me! 🙂
