Fantastic sea turtle tours at Lirio Lodge in Caribbean Costa Rica

Thousands of visitors come to Costa Rica each year with the hope of witnessing the extraordinary phenomenon of seeing sea turtles nest and lay their eggs. These ancient reptiles have been swimming Earth’s waters for at least 150 million years, mysteriously returning to the same beach where they were born.


Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast beaches receive mass arrivals of female turtles by the tens of thousands, and the Costa Rica Caribbean beaches have crucial world nesting sites. Of the seven species of sea turtles that exist on the planet, four of them nest on the beaches of the Costa Rica Caribbean Coast.

Tortuguero National Park and its neighboring beaches of the northern Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica are recognized as the Western Hemisphere’s most important nesting site for endangered Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas); and are a major nesting site for the critically endangered Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), and Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles.


Between the Caribbean port city of Limon and the Tortuguero National Park is the Pacuare-Matina Forest Reserve. This even more remote area than Tortuguero is also an important nesting site for Leatherback, Green and Hawksbill sea turtles.

“It is like Tortuguero 20 years ago, before it was developed, with the same wetlands and lowland rainforest, lagoons, beaches, and turtles that come to nest,” noted Helberth Chavarria Madrigal, operations manager at Lirio Lodge, located next to the Pacuare-Matina Forest Reserve.

The Costa Rica eco-lodge specializes in nature tours and educational tourism. During turtle nesting season, which begins in March, Lirio Lodge offers turtle tours with their bilingual guides. The tour is at night when turtles typically come up on the beach, using the cover of darkness for protection from predators. The Costa Rica jungle lodge works with the local grassroots Association of the Pacuare Community that protects the turtles.



The advantage of visiting the Pacuare-Matina Forest Reserve over Tortuguero is that turtle nesting season begins a few months earlier. Since the only place to stay is at Lirio Lodge, the area also is far less transited than the 50,000 tourists who come annually to Tortuguero for turtle nesting and hatching season, from June to October.

“At Lirio Lodge, we have far less people going to see the turtles. In Tortuguero, you might have 400 persons or more in one night, from all of the different lodges, out on the beach trying to see turtles. In our area, people on the tour are only people staying at our lodge,” commented Lirio Lodge co-owner Leo Jones.

For information on vacation packages, contact Lirio Lodge.

Article by Shannon Farley

Educational tourism at Lirio Lodge in Costa Rica helps community

Educational tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of travel and tourism. Not just for students, educational travel is about learning and being involved in community action projects while traveling and relaxing on vacation.

Costa Rica offers a wide variety of educational travel and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages. An excellent destination for educational tourism and volunteer groups is Lirio Lodge by Tortuguero in Costa Rica.

The Costa Rica eco-lodge is located in an area of the northern Caribbean Coast, between the port city of Limon and the Tortuguero National Park, where the famous whitewater rafting river, the Pacuare, meets the Caribbean Sea.

“It is like Tortuguero 20 years ago before it was developed, with the same wetlands and lowland rainforest, lagoons, beaches and turtles that come to nest,” noted Lirio Lodge operations manager Helberth Chavarria Madrigal.

The closest community of Pacuare Sur (South Pacuare) is tiny with maybe 100 persons in residence. The area is surrounded by water between the ocean, the Pacuare River and the immense Mother of God Lagoon (named after the “Madre de Dios” river that forms it).

“The community here is very poor. There is no electricity. There is only one classroom with one professor for 10 students, each in different grades. And this one professor must give classes to all of them. He has to travel 25 kilometers each way every day to teach; one hour by bus and 15 minutes by boat each way,” Chavarria explained.

Resources in the community are precious and meager, he said. For this reason, Lirio Lodge focuses on Costa Rica educational tourism to bring student groups to the Costa Rica jungle lodge both to experience and learn about the amazing nature of the area, and to contribute to the community with betterment projects.

“When groups ask us for volunteer projects, we try to help the community and the school as much as we can,” said Chavarria.

Lirio Lodge primarily receives groups of university students who are in Costa Rica on language study programs for several months. The students come to the lodge on weekends to do community work. Among the community improvements educational tourism students have made are: building a dining room for the school, constructing dry pathways above the swamp mud to the school entrance, creating gardens, cleaning up trash, building a new bathroom for the school, and improving the school’s water storage and usage.

Lirio Lodge offers one-day tours, and a two-day-one-night package with boat and hiking tours, lodging, all meals and roundtrip transport from San Jose.

Article by Shannon Farley

Put Tortuguero on your Costa Rica bucket list

The incredibly biodiverse area of Tortuguero should definitely be on your “bucket list” of places to see in Costa Rica.

Called the “Little Amazon” of Costa Rica, Tortuguero on the northern Caribbean Coast is an untamed stretch of wild jungle and desolate beaches. You have swamp, lagoons, canals, marshy islands, dense rainforest, black sand beaches, and an amazing abundance of animal and plant life. This is the Western Hemisphere’s most important nesting site for the endangered Green sea turtle, along with critically endangered Hawksbill and Leatherback sea turtles.

If you love nature, Tortuguero, Costa Rica, is your perfect place. In this steamy labyrinth, you can find monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, caimans, and multitudes of birds, snakes and insects. There are also rare animals threatened with extinction: jaguars, tapirs, Great Green Macaws and West Indian Manatees.

It is hot and wet, and the rainstorms are awe-inspiring. Nearly 20 feet (6,000 mm) of rain falls annually. The wettest months are December, June and July, and the driest are February, March and September, but you can get rain there anytime. The Green Sea Turtles come to nest from July to October.

Lirio Lodge serves as a gateway to the marvels of Tortuguero. The environmentally-friendly Costa Rica eco-lodge offers one-day tours in Tortuguero, and a two-day-one-night package with boat and hiking tours, lodging, all meals and transport from San Jose roundtrip. Lirio Lodge specializes in educational travel for all ages, and student travel programs.

The Costa Rica jungle lodge is located on a large lagoon by the Pacuare Biological Reserve, where the Pacuare River delta joins the Caribbean Sea. You are completely off the grid here: no internet, no phone, no TV, and no air-conditioning. All energy is produced by solar panels. Accommodation is in comfortable private wooden bungalows or the cozy Tent Enclosure Camp.

Article by Shannon Farley

Giving thanks on a Thanksgiving yoga retreat in Costa Rica

This year, why not spend the Thanksgiving holidays giving thanks for all that is good in life on a revitalizing yoga retreat in Costa Rica.

Imagine taking a break from the busyness of everyday life to relax and restore your energy in the rainforest, with 80-degree warm gulf waters at your doorstep and monkeys, Scarlet Macaws and coatis as your neighbors. This is Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in southern Costa Rica.

Accessible only by boat, the remote oceanfront Costa Rica rainforest lodge is located on the breathtaking Golfo Dulce across from the famous Osa Peninsula by the Piedras Blancas National Park. The extraordinary Costa Rica eco-lodge was designed for sustainable travel and holds the highest rating in the Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program (CST) in Costa Rica.

Starting Nov. 23, 2014, international yoga instructor Shonna Annapurna Brown and international recording artist John William Bauld will lead a Yoga Meditation and Sound retreat. The retreat lasts five, six or seven nights, depending on how long you choose to stay.

The yoga retreat includes two daily yoga classes, meditation, and evening kirtan concerts with the instructors. Yoga classes will be held on the beautiful yoga deck on the beach (shaded) or at the tree canopy-level main lodge building. There will be classical hatha yoga; Mantrasana Yoga with live music, a meditative hatha yoga class set to live mantra music; and restorative yoga. Kirtan is soothing participatory music using ancient Sanskrit mantras.

The retreat package includes accommodation at Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge, all meals, boat transfers, guided adventure activities, unlimited self-guided hikes in the preserve, and use of kayaks, snorkeling and fishing equipment. To get to Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge, drive or fly (NatureAir or Sansa Airlines) to either Puerto Jimenez or Golfito. Nicuesa Lodge will pick you up by boat and transfer you to the lodge (about 30 minutes one-way).

Article by Shannon Farley

Monkeying around on the Osa Peninsula Costa Rica

 

I never get tired of watching the monkeys in Costa Rica. It is so much fun to watch the cute, miniature-sized Squirrel Monkeys jump and play, and marvel at the ingenuity of clever White-faced Capuchin Monkeys. Spider Monkeys are wonderful to see swinging gracefully through the trees with their long arms, legs and tails. And the haunting call of Howler Monkeys at dawn, dusk, or before the rain, gives you that spine-tingling “I’m in the jungle” feeling.

There are only a few places in Costa Rica where you can see all four native species of monkeys – Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge on Golfo Dulce, the Piedras Blancas National Park, Osa Peninsula and Corcovado National Park.

Out of 250 species of primates in the world, 68 are in the Americas. Native to the forests of Costa Rica are the threatened Central American Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri oerstedii), the White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus), the Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata) and the endangered Geoffroy's Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi).

All four kinds of monkeys are active during the day and live in the treetops. You can see them using their strong limbs and prehensile tails (almost like a third hand) to swing between the trees when you walk the trails at Playa Nicuesa Lodge or on a visit to the Piedras Blancas National Park. On the kayaking tour in the Esquinas River mangrove estuary, you can frequently see White-faced Capuchin Monkeys and also Squirrel Monkeys.

Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge is located in the pristine rainforest on a remote beach of the Golfo Dulce. A TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence winner, the rainforest lodge in Costa Rica has its own 165-acre private preserve bordering the Piedras Blancas National Park.

August and September bring whale-watching season to Golfo Dulce, where you can see migrating Pacific Humpback Whales that come to Costa Rica’s warm waters to breed and give birth.

Article by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica eco lodge is unique place for rainforest retreats

Imagine attending a workshop or a retreat, but instead of a conference center or event hall, you were surrounded by sounds of lapping waves of 80-degree calm Pacific gulf waters and roars of howler monkeys in Costa Rica eco lodge.

This is what it is like to have a seminar or retreat at Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica. From conferences with scientific guest lecturers to yoga retreats, family reunions to company meetings, Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge is ideal for small group getaways. Groups of 18-28 persons can take the entire lodge for a completely private event; or smaller groups can share the lodge with other guests and still have private meeting and gathering space.

Accessible only by boat, Playa Nicuesa is situated in southern Costa Rica on the breathtaking Golfo Dulce (“Sweet Gulf”), one of only a handful of unique tropical fjords in the world. The renowned Osa Peninsula is just across these placid Pacific Ocean waters. The lodge’s 165-acre private reserve joins into the Piedras Blancas National Park.

Playa Nicuesa’s beautifully-designed 3,000-square-foot main lodge building – described to be like Robinson Crusoe’s tree house – is built in harmony with nature, and houses an open-air bar, dining room and lounge areas. Unique “jungle-chic” accommodations in five private bungalows and a separate four-room two-story guest house are private with open-air bathrooms and hot water showers. Fresh meals are included in all stays.

There is a spacious yoga deck by the beach and a canopy-level yoga platform in the main lodge building. Yoga classes are given daily in the early morning and late afternoon. To complement any retreat or seminar program, there are plenty of adventure tours.

For more information on holding a retreat, seminar or group event at Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica, check here.

Article by Shannon Farley