[slideshow gallery_id=”1″] During a recent trip to Costa Rica, my wife and I were looking forward to seeing lots of exotic animals in the wild. Things didn’t go entirely as hoped or as expected.

For this trip, we rented a car and drove through the interior of Costa Rica staying at different lodges along the way and ended up on the Pacific Coast. One of the things we looked for when selecting places to stay, was the chance to see animals in their natural habitat. Well things weren’t exactly as advertised.

One lodge at which we we stayed, The Selva Verde Lodge, was such a place. Selva Verde is an eco lodge located on the Rio Sarapiqui. The lodge itself is nicely laid out with lodging that are in the heart of the rainforest. The rooms are sparse, with no bar fridge or AC, but that is expected, for you get what you pay for. I can’t speak to the quality of the food overall as we only stayed one night, but I will say I ordered a pizza and I have had cardboard that tasted better. But we didn’t stay at the lodge for the food or the accommodations, we stayed for the unabashed promise of animals.

This from the Selva Verde Lodge website:

Selva Verde is more than a lodge and more than a rainforest reserve. It is your gateway into a magical world of towering Almendro trees, Mantled Howler Monkeys, and Keel Billed Toucans…Discover something new as you encounter Selva Verde’s amazing wildlife and vibrant people…Our abundant biodiversity, comfortable rainforest lodge, and exciting activities are ideal for adventure seekers, bird and wildlife watchers, students, and families. Come explore Selva Verde’s 500 acres of vibrant tropical nature in the heart of Costa Rica’s Sarapiqui Canton.

The lodge does have a good spot for bird watching—a viewing area is set up right off the main dining room, so you can watch in covered comfort as birds and squirrels venture to the feeders. We also saw a giant iguana and a poison dart frog on the way to eat some cardboard. Other than that? Nothing. Not even the howl of a howler monkey to be heard nor the silent sleep of a sloth to be seen.

I will say wildlife photography is not my specialty. I don’t set up blinds or wait for animals to come to me. So perhaps it’s my naivety that makes me think I would just walk into all these animals in the wild waiting to be photographed. Taking a guided tour would have improved my chances of seeing the wildlife as well since the guides know exactly where to look. And true enough, during the trip in Costa Rica I would often startle an iguana or some other lizard who had seen, heard, and/or smelt me long before I ever noticed it. But still, promoting a lodge in this way just seems wrong.

I have lived in my home in Markham, Canada, for ten years and over that time I have seen foxes, coyotes, deer, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, toads, frogs, skunks, ducks, geese, cardinals, bluejays, and the list goes on. Biodiversity? Oh yes? Vibarnt people? I’d like to think so. But I would hardly promote it as a “gateway to a magical world of towering maple trees” or as a chance to see “amazing wildlife”. Wherever you live, you are bound to come into contact with native animals at some point, it just might not be that often.

So the animal portion of our Costa Rica trip was a little disappointing. Most of the animals we saw were in terrariums or cages. Sure it’s cool to see animals native to the region, but a twenty minute drive to the local zoo as opposed to a six hour flight would suffice. But if that kind of thing doesn’t bother you, La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Peace Lodge is probably the best one stop shop to get your fill the animals Costa Rica has to offer. They have a Butterfly Observatory, a Hummingbird Garden, a Serpentarium, a Frog Exhibit, a Trout Lake, a Jungle Cat display, and a Bird Aviary. In a future post I’ll write more about the beautiful accommodations at the Peace Lodge.

Here are some animals we saw, in the wild and not so much.

The first “wild” animal we saw was the Coatis, a member of the raccoon family. At some hotels, like the Westin Golf Resort and Spa, bands of these scavengers can be found cleaning up the impeccable grounds—you’d think they actually worked for the resort as all that was missing was the uniform. These guys do most of their work in the day and are very used to tourists with cameras.

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Part of the “abundant” wild life, a red squirrel eats a banana near the bird feeders at Selva Verde Lodge.

 

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