EJ Latitudes 1/08.qxd - Frontiers Elegant Journeys

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AFTER SPENDING MY WINTERS IN CENTRAL
AMERICA OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS, I FELT IT
WAS TIME TO EXPAND MY TRAVELS, including
more of two countries that I had not totally covered
before — Costa Rica and Panama. Choosing my
favorite place among the many in each country was
a difficult task. Costa Rica, with more than a dozen
distinct climatic zones, provided the greatest challenge.
I do have a hands-down winner in Panama.
Costa Rica offered so many great areas to visit I must share two of
those with you.
Gems
of Central America
The first, a three-hour drive from San Jose, is Monteverde Lodge, a
perfect base to explore the Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest
Reserve. Large, comfortable guest rooms feature angled walls of
glass with chairs and a table placed so that avid birders can do a
bit of birding without leaving their rooms, which I did both at sunrise
and sunset.
The gardens and secondary forest surrounding the lodge have some
gentle groomed trails and are also home to quite a few species of
birds and playful monkeys. Perhaps the lodge’s most popular attraction
is the large hot tub in a glass-enclosed atrium garden just off
the lobby. The local troop of monkeys likes to sit on top of the
atrium and watch the tourists enjoy their late-afternoon cocktail.
The hotel’s dining room offers great views, good food, and excellent
service. An adjacent bar with fireplace is a popular gathering
spot to recap the day’s activities, and there are regular evening
slide shows focusing on the cloud forest and its inhabitants.
Tortuga Lodge
The Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Reserve is one of the most
developed and well-maintained natural attractions in Costa Rica.
One experience you must not miss is the Hummingbird Gallery at
the entrance to the park. Whether a bird lover or not, this extravaganza
is an amazing sight. You stand among the many feeders
(filled every couple of hours) with hundreds of hummingbirds flying
around you from feeder to feeder in a constant frenzy.
The second of my two gems in Costa Rica is in a more tropical
locale; I tried a couple of days in Tortuguero (Costa Rica’s mini-
Amazon) on the Caribbean coast. The Tortuga Lodge’s 27 open-air
rooms are spread between six modest two-story bungalows that
emerge gently from the tropical foliage. The lodge has a lovely
river-rock pool and excellent service: the general manager calls
guests by name, and the chef can prepare basic dishes that aren’t
on the simple set menu.
Tortuguero shelters a fabulous array of wildlife including more than
300 bird species, among them the great green macaw; 57 species
of amphibians and 111 of reptiles including three species of marine
turtles; 60 mammal species (13 of Costa Rica’s 16 endangered
species) including jaguars, tapirs, ocelots, cougars, river otters, and
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