San Isidro Lodge

Arriving by afternoon along the road from Cosanga, guests settle into cabins already ringed by hummingbirds working the feeders. A short rest gives way to a walk on the lodge's interpretive trail, where mountain tapirs occasionally pass, and a salt feeder near the dining room draws them closer still. Evenings begin with a brief night walk between the cabins in search of owls, night monkeys and frogs, and dinner is served with a hot toddy of native leaves and cane spirit. It is a working cloud forest reserve as much as a lodge. Mornings often start at the antpitta feeding stations, where a white-bellied antpitta will sit in the open at close range, then move on to trails threading primary forest thick with tanagers, woodcreepers and the odd quetzal. A canoe glide along a slow forest stream leads to a waterfall pool, where pottery shards left by the pre-colonial Curisetas people still wash up in the sand. The Cosanga River, reached on foot through the reserve, offers a sandy beach and a swim in cold mountain water. Back at the lodge, an organic greenhouse supplies herbs and greens for the kitchen, and a heated pool with a lit fireplace waits for anyone who has had enough of the trails. At night, moths and beetles gather at the porch lights, drawing agoutis at dawn. The reserve itself does the rest.