Hiking up toward three waterfalls at El Silencio Lodge. Based on our time there, there’s enough water for a lot more waterfalls!
Our meandering through Costa Rica continues as we head from the beaches of the Pacific to the cloud forests and rain forests of the central mountains. The diversity of tiny Costa Rica is pretty amazing.
These plants have a formal name, but they’re called umbrella plants for perhaps obvious reasons. The leaves are enormous, probably the biggest I’ve ever seen, and they were all over the grounds at our lodge.
Our first stop was a cloud forest lodge near Bajos del Toro, a tiny town high in the mountains of central Costa Rica. When we left San Jose it was sunny and in the low 80s; 90 minutes later it was rainy and in the upper 50s. “Well,” I thought, “it’ll probably clear up at some point.”
The 17 villas that make up El Silencio Lodge, taken from one of our little hikes into the hills above
Wrong. Apparently all that beautiful green scenery we saw as we were driving into the mountains requires vast amounts of rain to stay, well, green. Vast amounts. To be sure, the weather varied during our stay. Sometimes it rained a lot and sometimes it merely misted heavily. On rare occasions there was no precipitation at all, but that would last for only a few minutes. Then something would start again.
Horseback riding through lush green hills. Sadly, the very uncool helmets were required.
Still, we had a great time. El Silencio Lodge, where we were staying, is really beautiful and – as the flat tire experience suggests – provides pretty great service. (You want good service? While we were at dinner, they provided turn-down service in the room. And since the nights are pretty cool up there, the turn-down service includes putting hot-water bottles under your sheets. Now that’s service.) The food was outstanding; the local rivers are apparently full of trout that looked and tasted more like salmon, while most of the produce came from their own organic garden. In other words, all very local and very fresh. We went horseback riding one morning and hiked to three pretty impressive waterfalls another morning. The afternoons were about sleeping, reading, and enjoying the private hot tub that came with the room.
All in all, beautiful and relaxing. And wet and muddy, but beautiful and relaxing.
Mark, along the river that led to the waterfalls
Mark & our guide Carlos. Even he had to wear a helmet, though I suspect he was in little danger of falling off.
The second of our three waterfalls
This was the third and by far biggest of the three waterfalls, all within an hour’s hike of our lodge
