We left Los Quetzals park this morning, drove north to Cartago and headed for the province of Limon. Being Valentine’s Day, when we saw a sign at a roadside house offering local chocolate we had to stop to buy some to give each other!  The self-described “cacao lady” made amazing truffles which a fellow tourist said were better than crack.

Lunch was at a small soda beside the Pacuare River. Sodas are small family-owned restaurants serving traditional home-style meals heavy on the rice and beans.  Here we found a yummy Aztec soup and some chicken barbecue. 

Once out of the mountains and closer to the Caribbean coast, we drove past miles and miles of banana plantations and shared the road with huge trucks with Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole stickers. So now we have seen where our bananas come from!

The excursion to our next lodge was a bit of an adventure.  A 5 hour drive brought us to just outside the city of Limon where we veered off the main highway onto a somewhat more sketchy road.  The road became muddy and rough and potholed as we got close to the private Selva Reserve area. We let ourselves into the lodge gate, having been given the code on WhatsApp this morning. 

The plan was to leave our car in their parking area and be transferred the rest of the way. We were met by Eduardo who took one look at our rental truck and said “I was expecting a little car, you can follow me”. We drove behind him the remaining 4 km to the lodge, fording the Bananito River several times.

 

Finally we have arrived at the Selva Bananito Lodge. 

The Kinkajou cabins are some distance from the main lodge area down a muddy path, so we were happy to be moved to a larger and closer cabin on our first morning.

This is the only Eco Lodge in Costa Rica that has been built with recycled waste wood from the logging activity that took place years ago.  They use solar heated water and dinner was served by candlelight. 

Over the next two days we have booked a few guided tours and will also have time for solo wandering around this beautiful property.