The above photo is one of mine from Drake Bay since Nat Geo used their Drake Bay photo and I think mine is just about as good! 🙂 It’s sunrise from Aguila de Osa Lodge and the full post online also has my Drake Bay snorkeling photo. 🙂
And for those email recipients who won’t click the magazine link above, I copied the CR part of the article into my full blog post on my site, just click below . . .
Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.
~Leonardo da Vinci
A photo from San Gerardo de Dota that I liked and didn’t include in my flower post. Sometimes it’s the little things that impress me the most, yet often get overlooked like this diminution of light.
One of my new favorite lodges in Costa Rica is El Silencio Lodge at Bajos del Toro in my own province of Alajuela, north of San Ramon in the cloud forest mountains where there are many waterfalls. I was there last September and as I frequently do, I made a little 7X7 inch photo book about my experiences there, sending them a copy plus one each of my general birds and butterflies books for their other guests to enjoy. When the owner came down from San Jose and saw the books he was so impressed that he told the staff to offer me two free nights in this luxury lodge.
Well, of course I accepted the offer and will add-on two more nights at my cost for a great 5-day visit the middle of February! 🙂 If you want to see a free electronic preview of the book online, click the title here:El Silencio, Touching Souls, inspired by a quote from Mother Teresa:
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Hotel Savegre is a much different hotel than I remember it from my 2009 visit when it was a long row of rooms like an old-fashion motel stuck in the forest with a separate building for the office and restaurant. Then there were gardens in front with lots of hummingbird feeders and a few little trails into the forest. Today, no feeders! Just natural flowers and other plants to attract the birds.
Restaurant on the left and lobby-office on the right.
Today it is a new, modern, 4-star hotel that I still think should be called a “mountain lodge,” but that was not the vision of these first pioneers in this little mountain resort community. And one of their adult sons was my birding guide this time! It is the largest Hotel-Spa-Nature Reserve in San Gerardo de Dota and is a big attraction to both tourists and Ticos from the cities wanting to get away. In fact, the weekend part of my time there on this trip was totally booked, every room! And I estimate at least 80% local Costa Ricans, called Ticos here.
Below is a gallery of what shots I got of the hotel. The rooms are now in groups of 2 to 4 around gardens with at least one garden table and chairs for each 2 or 4 rooms. It is rustic-modern, very comfortable, with a heater in every room, that is needed, especially at night! And Wifi in each room that was not working in my room, so I just used the public areas for Wifi. And a modern fireplace in every section of the restaurant which I guess burns something like butane? The food is as good as I’ve had anywhere, not exactly “gourmet” which would sound pretentious (not them), but is just high-quality food, very well-prepared with a large assortment of choices.
Here’s a few of my photos of the facilities you can CLICK to enlarge somewhat or for the full-sized images go to my The Hotel Gallery in the bigger Trip Gallery which is now completed:
Though I still have posts coming through Tuesday, February 2, the photos have all been processed and collected in on of my “Trip Galleries” to see all of the photos in one place called 2021 San Gerardo de Dota Hotel Savegre. Click the linked title or the gallery image below to see.
Photo Galleries for January 2021 Visit to Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Male Quetzal, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica — One of the many images in this gallery.
Just in time! The night before I leave on another trip I finished my photos from the Christmas 2020 trip to Arenal Observatory Lodge with more than 50 species of birds! And 5 are lifers for me! Plus a whole lot of other photos from this favorite lodge. For now the birds are presented alphabetically by their English Common Name. Later I will make time to arrange by species families according to my birding guide book. Overall I’m pleased with this collection of photos and moving on to the next collection! 🙂 To see gallery CLICK above link or the image below:
The several swinging bridges at Arenal Observatory Lodge connecting the many trails are a lot more secure than those rope bridges we made in Boy Scouts, but just as thrilling! 🙂 Here’s some shots of two of the hanging bridges I hiked over during my Arenal Visit Christmas Week. CLICK an image to see larger . . .
Danta Bridge
Danta Bridge
Danta Bridge
Approach to Spider Bridge
Spider Bridge
Spider Bridge
Crossing Rivers & Canyons on Arenal Conservatory Trails
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”
― Douglas Adams
Tomorrow Begins Another Adventure . . .
I don’t plan or intend to have trips just 3 weeks apart! It takes me longer than that to process the photos! 🙂
But because I had to reschedule this next trip, originally set for a March-April overlap week, just as the Pandemic was taking over . . . Soooo I told them to “reschedule it around the middle of January, not thinking about my Christmas trip – But anyway . . . I’m shifting gears from a rainforest at the base of a volcano to a cooler Cloud Forest in San Gerardo de Dota, starting tomorrow at the Savegre Hotel and Nature Reserve. (NOTE: their website is under reconstruction and only the home page shows for now.
This is one of the lodges I stayed in on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. It’s the best place in the world to see and photograph the Resplendent Quetzal bird. And the coldest place I’ve been in Costa Rica with fireplaces used at night. Since no rain in January, it is a little warmer at 13° C or 54° F average low to high of 27°C or 81°F, but hey guys! I freeze to death here in Atenas when it gets down in the 60’s F. 🙂
The new lodge website linked above is under construction, so instead of their photos, you can see my photo galleries of 3 previous visits, all a very long time ago 🙂 . . .
One of my regular readers asked about insects and bug bites on all the wilderness hikes I make with every trip and in a little-less wilderness around where I live in Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. And he asked what I did about them.
YES, in the tropics, and Costa Rica specifically, there are actually more insect species than all of the U.S. and Canada combined. Generally they seem to me to be worse at hot times, our summer which is North America’s winter – ironically the time of year we have the most tourists! ? But also location is a big factor, para ejemplo (for example) hotter lowland rainforests and year-around wetlands seem worse to me than mountain cloud forest like I was in last week. And that includes most beaches which have more mosquitoes for example than I have ever seen here in the central valley. But the government has done an excellent job of keeping down the population of mosquitoes all over the country because of diseases they carry and I seldom see one. But there are still many other bugs that bite all over the country! And spiders too!
And you birders remember than many birds eat insects, thus the places I have photographed the most bird species like Maquenque Lodge Boca Tapada and Rancho Humo Guanacaste are wetlands year-around and thus more insects than some dryer places. Here in the Central Valley I see more insects just before and at the beginning of rainy season (April-May) than I do during the daily rains like right now. Not sure why.
When hiking in the reserves and parks I usually spray with Deep Woods Off (a high % of Deet) before going out, and occasionally here at home when I see lots of insects. For treatment off bites I always take a tube of Allergel with me or a similar antihistamine gel/ointment /cream to relieve the itching (many brands here from Europe, U.S., etc). When you live in the tropics you must learn to live with insects! ?
Around my house I notice at different times of the year an influx of different flying insects that are pests more than biters, while at other times I get biten and don’t even know by what! 🙂 I just pull out the antihistamine gel and treat it and so far I have lived through all my bug bites! 🙂
Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them. ~Unknown
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.”
