Peace Lodge

It was a short easy drive down the volcano and on to Peace Lodge, an incredible resort on 65 acres of private land. The land was developed in 2000, there are only 18 villas on the property. Each has two jacuzzis, one on the balcony and another in the large bathroom, two showers, one a waterfall shower the other traditional. There is a canopy bed, a fireplace and plenty of room for a second bed to be set up. Here are some pictures of the room and the view from the balcony……

The big attraction is the walking tour to the falls and the animal exhibits along the walk. The latter consist of an aviary, complete with parrots and toucans, a monkey house, a butterfly house, an insectarium, a herpetarium, a sloth house, a frog house and a hummingbird area. No way guests in a mere 18 villas support this place. Tourists staying elsewhere pay to tour the property and to eat at the restaurants or visit the bar.

We did the frog tour the first night….

We did two tour the second day, the guided tour which I will call the “knowledge” tour. It took nearly 4 hours, ended at 12:30, and went through each display ending with the famous waterfalls. At the end of the day, at 4:30 we did the feeding tour where you are allowed to feed the toucans and the sloths. Here are some pictures.

We finished the stay at Peace Lodge birding at 6 AM with our guide Michael and fishing in the stocked pond/swimming pool. Throw a chunk of fish food in and the trout swarm it, throw a chunk of fish food on a hook in, they ignore it completely. It took some subterfuge and luck to catch three, here is Margaret with her catch, being held by Anne.

I added 24 new birds to my life list, 7 of them hummingbirds.

We checked out at 11AM, drove to Parador Resort in Quepos next to Manuel Antonio NP. While it was cool, actually cold at times on the volcano, it’s hot and humid here at sea level. We stopped near Jaco for lunch at a restaurant called Stephen Lisa’s. Lucky with the weather so far, it rained on us as we drove but began to pour once we checked in. Any concern about seeing monkeys was gone nearly as soon as we got to our room, white face Capuchins were on the roof of our room and in the palm tree next to our balcony.