Costa Rica is a progressive country. When you don’t have a military, it seems you have more money for education, health care, and infrastructure. And also (my personal favorite this summer) parks. There are 26 national parks in this little country, comprising over 25% of its entire land area.
Costa Rica is a beautiful place, and one where the people value the natural environment. Sustainable tourism is a growing industry here. Because it’s what draws visitors here, there’s also a strong economic incentive to protecting the outdoors.
We stayed three nights at an all-inclusive ecolodge called the Celeste Mountain Lodge outside the village of Bijagua, in the Tilarán region. It was a pretty cool place, constructed with lots of recycled and salvaged materials, and with energy efficient features, a water reclamation system, and solar water heating.
The grounds were lovely
and the “tropical Costa Rican fusion cuisine” was tasty.
It poured almost the whole time we were there. But hey, it’s a rainforest, what do you expect?
We explored the lodge’s nature trail in the rain,
went on a guided birdwatching walk in the rain,
and took ourselves on a very muddy but rewarding hike to the beautiful blue Rio Celeste, in the rain.
Now we need to get out of here and dry off before we grow moss.
Lorna of Arabia 