Sunday, April 15, 2007

Samoa Lodge- place to stay in Costa Rica part 4



I highly recommend a visit to the Samoa Lodge in Tortuguero. The grounds are beautiful, staff wonderful, food delicious, and the canals are magnificent!

How's that for a recommendation? I mean every word of it! The Samoa Lodge is located along the canals of Tortuguero National Park in the Northeastern corner of Costa Rica. Motorized vehicles except boats are banned in the park. The only mode of transportation is via the canals that were built as a roadway.

When we visited last February, the mini-bus drove over extremely rough roads after leaving Siquirres. That part of the drive took an hour if I recall correctly(?). Once we arrived at the docks, everyone was piled into a flat boat with a roof -we did get a short break for treats and restrooms while they loaded our luggage onto the boat. Then we took off through the canals slowly at first then at break neck speed. I believe we were all somewhat disappointed by the quick ride (30 minutes) and at the same time relieved that we arrived at the lodge to unwind. Immediately upon arrival, the staff appeared with yummy fruit drinks! I knew instantly that this would be my favorite part of the trip.

Our package at the lodge included 2 nights stay, 2 trips to the village of Tortuguero where we toured the Caribbean Conservation Corporation for turtles and hiked through the national park, a morning canal trip with a naturalist, and all meals.

This is the website for the lodge: http://www.samoalodge.com/



We really enjoyed the pool!

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