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.”
The El Silencio Lodge & Reserve is a very special and unique place! And I say that having spent nights in more than 45 lodges & hotels in Costa Rica. For service, food, room quality, and the natural surroundings it is definitely now in my top 3 favorite lodges and maybe even my #1 favorite! (Remember – different lodges have different priorities!) And also it is my most expensive! 🙂 But with waterfalls like La Promesa at right near your cabin, it is worth almost any price! 🙂 And of course nothing is perfect . . .
My only two complaints at checkout were that the bathroom sink drained slowly because the stopper was installed incorrectly (CR is not famous for great plumbers) and the gourmet chef who served great food served me limp, lightly cooked bacon. Bacon must be crisp in my book! 🙂 Though, in his defense, the night I asked for a well-done steak, he did that very well! 🙂 And I had not specifically asked for the bacon to be crispy! (Had I, it probably would have been! Never assume nothin’!))
I mainly walked, but they have golf carts and drivers who will pick you up anytime, day or night and take you anywhere on campus free of charge! They also have two fleets of bicycles you can use for free, with a handful actually electric! Then they have several vans to take you off-campus to outside waterfalls or other attractions like Poas Volcano, two national parks, birding trips as far as Cañon Negro included with the cost of a guide for the trip. But believe me – there’s enough to do on campus to fill a week easily and their 3 beautiful waterfalls are as good or better than the two outside ones I paid extra to see! But still glad I saw them!
With nature my focus, I don’t get a lot of hotel shots, but here are a few with a separate gallery for my room or villa shots . . .
Many Vistas
Lodge Road
Main Building, Restaurant, etc.
Restaurant & Office
Entering Empty Restaurant – Dinner by appointments spaced people out
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
After breakfast this morning walking back to my villa, I got one more species, not new to me, but upping my photo count to 16 here this trip. It is the Common Chlorospingus (link to eBird article) and he used to be called a “Common Bush Tanager.” There was a flock of them along the main road flitting from tree to tree.
I’m now packing and will leave around 10:30, back to Atenas!
Here’s 12 birds I photographed at El Silencio Lodge and Reserve in addition to the 3 hummingbirds shared yesterday. Of the 15 I photographed, 4 are lifers or first-time I’ve seen that species. Then there were others not photographed like the red-tailed hawk flying overhead and a Black and White Warbler. And my main reason for coming here was the waterfalls! 🙂 So it has been a very good week and I go home tomorrow morning (Saturday) to continue my lesser adventures in Atenas, but will continue sharing photos from this excellent trip.
Chestnut-capped Brushfinch
Western Wood-Peewee
Blackburnian Warbler
Prong-billed Barbet
Slate-throated Redstart
Blue-gray Tanager
Brown Jay
Collared Trogan female
House Wren
Black Phoebe
Rufous-collared Sparrow
White-throated Thrush
And the lifers? They are the Chestnut-capped Brushfinch, Blackburnian Warbler, Scintillant Hummingbird, and the Black-bellied Hummingbird. I showed the two hummingbirds in a post yesterday. And the reason the Brushfinch is in a girl’s hand, he had just flown into one of the lodge office’s plate-glass windows and was still in shock. He eventually flew off.
I highly recommend El Silencio Lodge & Reserve and though it is expensive, it is well-worth what they charge! And I am not finished sharing photos from this trip, so expect more for the next few days! 🙂
