IMAGES: BÖËNA WILDERNESS LODGES, COSTA RICA; GETTY
COSTA RICA
Up here, the treetops are draped with the occasional sloth and rainbow toucans loudly announce their flight paths
This is the first stop on a nearly fortnight-
long bespoke itinerary put together by operator Audley Travel that takes me to four of southern Costa Rica’s most scenic and biodiverse enclaves, dodging the crowds by using rafts, quad bikes, ferries and even my own wheels to go further, deeper and more off-the-beaten track. The aim is to stay in eco-lodges that truly live up to the name by employing locals and leaving a light footprint. At Pacuare Lodge, I feel I’ve already hit the jackpot right out of the gate. Before I pack up and raft out, I take a hike
Clockwise from top: A carved Cabécar mask; driving through the Costa Rican hills; a three-toed sloth, which live for 25 to 30 years; the Cabécar make traditional crafts and sell them locally
with softly spoken lodge guide Giovanni Taylor Damien into the hotel’s 930-acre forested reserve. We climb higher and higher, leaving the rush of the Pacuare behind us. Up here, where the treetops are draped with the occasional sloth and rainbow toucans loudly announce their flight paths, Giovanni teaches me to unstitch the soundscape, to pick out the euphonias, flycatchers and woodcreepers from the motmots, tanagers and manakins. He plays the birdsongs on a phone app so that the creatures sing back to him in response and shows me pictures of their bright markings up close on his screen after each sighting. “Until recently, guides used to carry around a heavy birding book — there are 900 species in Costa Rica. And in this humidity; you can’t imagine the state of the books after the rainy season!” he says, pocketing his device. Some hours later, the rich, red mud of the
river basin gives way to the cooler air and sandier earth of the higher ground. We break the dense treeline and the vista opens to reveal the misty foothills of the Talamanca Range, part of the Sierra Nevada, continually revised by tectonic forces, stretching as far as the eye
can see. Giovanni’s brought me into the Nairi Awari Indigenous Reserve, home to some of the Cabécar people, the largest of Costa Rica’s eight indigenous groups, which together make up 2.4% of the country’s population. At the first homestead — a collection of traditional round wooden houses topped with conical palm-leaf roofs — we meet Ananias Jiménez Jiménez who works at the lodge. “Jishtu mashkina,” he says, wishing us a good morning in the Cabécar tongue. This isn’t his home — it belongs to Vivian
Däküey Bä, a silent, raven-haired teenager who greets us curiously and whose mother also works at the lodge — but Ananias is here to interpret a little of the culture for me on his neighbours’ behalf. This is one of the very few places in the country that offers this exchange; many Cabécar communities live apart from the rest of society, on designated lands. “We used to live even deeper in the mountains before this reserve was created, 100 years ago,” he says. “A lot of the ancient ways are being lost, but there are still older people who remember the old dances, some songs.” These days, the big cultural event is a
meeting of five Cabécar hill communities over a raucous football match. “Once the invite is sent out, Cabécares will walk for days to congregate. It’s a way for the girls to meet the boys, and for us to drink dÿ,” he laughs, referencing the local sugar-cane hooch. For those who live in proximity to the
Cabécar, there’s lots to be learnt and gained, and not just in the crops, woven bags and totemic, balsa-wood animal carvings they sell locally. “We’ve picked up natural remedies that we can even offer guests,” Giovanni says, “like maracas flowers to repel mosquitos or
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