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Feb 14, Tuesday

Day 11 & 12 (Feb. 14 & 15) Early in the morning we’ll depart Puerto Jiminez for the end of the road at Carate.  It is an adventure just to get to our lodge, a remote paradise literally past the end of the road, across rivers and up steep mountains. Luna Lodge was recently featured in Conde Naste Traveller, and was rated “One of the Top 25 Eco-Lodges in the World” by Travel & Leisure Magazine, and it has earned its reputation  -- you won’t want to leave this place!  But if you should, we’ll hike deep into Corcovado National Park and enjoy the rainforest, wide open beaches and remote trails.  Corcovado is sure to be a highlight of your adventure.

Over 30 acres of Luna Lodge's property is primary virgin rain forest, where not only can you spot literally hundreds of rare and beautiful bird species such as the scarlet macaw, red-legged honeycreeper, and slaty tailed trogon, but also many mammals including several endangered species. The endangered Harpy Eagle was recently seen flying overhead for the first time in many years. There are five year-round waterfalls on the property itself, one of them less than five minutes walk from the cabins with a swift flowing chute and refreshing wading pool. Two nights at Luna Lodge

While Maxine goes down to wash I put out her card.  She has a sweet one for me.  6:40 we walk to a long beach nearby.  Others are there and have seen macaws 10 minutes earlier, one of the sights I would particularly have enjoyed.  Breakfast is good but has no non-herbal tea.  Pancakes have corn.  I try gently to ask if they have only this one kind, and Koky asks the chef to prepare plain ones for me.

We leave late.  In town my book is not at the relevant office.  Koky makes some calls; we go to the dock where we landed.  The boat is in the water maybe 20 yards from the dock.  Someone is supposed to be here but isn’t.  Another boat happens to be coming in, and Koky asks for a ride.  He gets to the boat, reaches in the storage area for a minute, then stands up with his arm raised and my book apparently in it.  I was already feeling much less bad, and this greatly lifts my spirits (helped by the realization, when Koky returns to the dock, that I had also left the little tape recorder there.  All this probably takes 30-40 minutes, but no one complains, and I think: “don’t feel bad; I’ve been tolerant of concerns important to others, and this book is an important concern of mine.”

We drive off.  The dirt road is not bad.  We have a rest stop and head for the side-trip to a reserve.  Although I’d been dreading the side trip, most of the time it isn’t at all bad.  We eat on a beach.  Temperature is fairly comfortable.  We see a macaw or two and a whole tribe of howlers.  Then we hike awhile.  I realize I do not want to do this—would rather sit on the beach and read—and ask Koky how much longer; I stress that it is not to get the others to turn around.  He says only a very short distance further, so I stay with the group.  Indeed, the hike is over within a minute or so and we return to the van.

With one or two more stops to see macaws and monkeys by the road, we proceed to Luna Lodge. I nap 20 minutes.  Last 10 minutes of trip is very rough terrain, much of it uphill, and includes fording several times what is probably the same twisting river (I am told that in rainy season the river can back traffic for hours).

Luna is beautiful but limited and very expensive—US prices for booze, $25 for unspecified “bottle of wine.”  The generator will go off about 10.  (The literature says when everyone goes to bed, but we later learn this actually means about 10.)  Lighting in the room is very poor after dark.  The cabin is lovely with an “outdoor” (sheltered but with an open wall) toilet/shower.  We turn in some laundry (twice the cost of elsewhere).  I shower and feel much better.  We sit in rockers on the cabin porch, which overlooks a valley.  We get the impression that, despite Josh’s assurances, there is little to do here—certainly little that we would like to do.  Maxine and I have decided not to go on tomorrow’s all-day 12-km hike.

Koky tells us that at Josh’s instruction he has arranged a simple hike for Thursday around the local lagoon.  We flush shit toilet paper against the rules.  Appetizers (turns out to be a single appetizer) are at 6 each evening, dinner at 7.  Tonight is chips and bean dip.  Maxine thinks this is to encourage bar orders.  Dinner is a buffet; I like almost all the veggie dishes, but the chicken seems dry and I leave it after tasting it.  Others agree.  I’m in a good mood, joking again.  We have all agreed to spring for a puddlejumper plan instead of the long bus ride to San Jose, and Koky tell us he is leaving tomorrow (Wed.) afternoon—would have stayed with us if we had stayed with the plan to take the bus on Friday.  Maxine thinks $300 is a good tip; I think it should be a little more.

Electricity is off between 10 and 7.  In our room is a bat (we saw many of them flitting earlier in the twilight) and numerous bugs.  We huddle with our headlamps beneath the netting over the bed.  Our calves have been bitten up earlier (“no mosquitoes” an employee had reassured us in the afternoon—but had not warned of other biting insects).  In the room we read awhile, readjust (with difficulty) the netting over the bed, go to sleep before 10.  I feel terrified of getting up and back into bed lest I be unable to adjust the netting again, and I resolve not to pee during the night.  Slight trouble getting to sleep.  It’s a bit muggy.  At 1:15 Maxine gets up to pee, and I follow through the open netting on her side of the bed.  Hard to get back to sleep.  I obsess with narratives about ecological issues, especially the fraud of this lodge, but I do get to sleep until 5:55, when I am up for the day.

I think: the lodge is an ecoDisney with bugs.  The bugs are annoying but no true danger.  The builder, someone said, is an ex-California hippie (and the library includes some new age type books plus books on natural medicine).  Our introductory blurb/leaflet has stressed ecological actions (e.g., toilet paper in basket), but why did the owner choose to clear part of the rain forest for a tourist lodge?  (I will learn later that this isn’t exactly what happened.)  Why use so much (seemingly) fancy wood for construction?  Why charge premium prices?  

My review of Luna (posted on tripadvisor.com)

Feb 15, Wednesday

Upon waking I see big gaps in the netting at our feet and on Maxine’s side of the bed.  I feel good to have the whole day to read.  Maxine is up 20 minutes after me.

The other 4 women have gone on the all-day hike.  G joins us mid-way through breakfast (fruit, granola; I have a decent cheese omelet), and I soon go to a hammock on the terrace adjoining the dining area.  Maxine stays and chats with G.  I repress the need to respond to another of G’s cheery, confident observations; he will always top you and drag out what you've said.

I read some of Coates, nap in the hammock for an hour, read some more.  I feel largely at peace, though a little tension remains in my chest.  Very nice breeze as I read (and write diary entries).  A pool is being built next to the lodge.  Yesterday a noisy earth mover was there when we arrived; today the workers make a little noise. 

By mid-afternoon I am walking very slowly (feeling peaceful, unhurried).  I have minimal contact with G, who by now has probably picked up on my disapproval/reluctance to talk with him.  By 5 I have had a relaxed day with some insect bites. 

The plans for tomorrow’s lagoon hike are still unclear.  We pay Koky our bills ($119 for drinks and extras, $300 tip for Koky), and we have about $340 left of the $1200 cash with which we started plus $50 in colons for the ATM in Santa Elena.

From our porch in late afternoon we see a yellow-beaked toucan.  Nifty.  Dinner includes mahi-mahi, which I find I like as it has been prepared.  This is the first meal without Koky, though the staff have set a place for him.

Back at the room after dinner I realize there is no comfortable place to read, especially at night.  The couch in the lodge stinks.  So we sit again on our little room porch on leather rocking chairs, then try to read under the netting (bugs are attracted to our lights—and I probably use my headlamp because room lighting is poor).  It gets hot under the netting, and we return to the rockers.  I read with the headlamp, go to bed just before 10.  Very wired, get irritated with the difficulty of draping the netting correctly, angry with the bug problem.

I feel (1) at the mercy of Josh’s Innerquest (his “philosophy” linked to his business) consciousness, that this leads him to deciding what is best for his travelers (and his “go-with-the-flow” is self-serving) and (2) that the lodge deliberately narrows your scope to what the owner thinks is good for you—poor lighting, walls open to bugs, generator out 10-7.