La Carolina Lodge on the Rio Celeste Costa Rica: off the beaten track,worth every minute.

 

We are grateful to Wendy Smith and her family for telling us about La Carolina Lodge, a magical 80+ hectare ranch that is part dude-ranch, part rain forest, part Horse Whisperer, and all heart. 

The kids had a ball and so did Carol and I- hard not to when all meals are included as are the great conversations with people from all over the world over kerosene lamps. There is no internet, just plain old fashioned fun and rejuvenation. 

This is a working ranch. We woke up to the heat of the wood-burning stove.

The kiddos helped helped put a dent in the 6 gallons of milk that are hand-milked every day. Easily done given the number of requests the kiddos had for 'chocolate' made from local cacao.

The kids delighted in lifting their tin mugs and declaring, "I milked my own chocolate!"

J has gone so "Tico" that he is even fist-pumping the cows! All joking aside it was neat to meet a calf that was 2 months old (J is saying hello below) and a 2 DAY old calf. The little one in the background was the 2 day old and it was probably just about to nibble Sophia's pant leg.

The kids were at once fascinated and repelled by a newly slaughtered pig that would be expertly butchered by the jolly Jose Manuel. When they said 'working', they meant working.

Jose Manuel might be Santa without the beard, he is that jolly. He handles all things meat on the ranch (bear in mind they have a massive imported Texas smoker and the consensus has been that the meat served at each meal is smoky great!), and a zillion other chores. He explained a lot including that he had learned to slaughter at age 6 from his grandfather. He laughed heartily when Carol had me ask him if the pig had had a name. Can you guess the answer? The pigs no. The horses and dogs yes!

Not to be outdone by Sam's recent market experience:

There was definitely a reverence and respect to the whole process and we know the kids understood a lot more about animal products and animal origin than they could ever have expected to before this moment. I just cannot imagine the whole affair being a mass operation.  La Carolina is all about doing things by hand, 

Juan, drying frijoles(beans) that he grew at the ranch's organic garden

and by animal.

We've been around the block here and I will say that we've never seen so many different animals/birds surrounding a lodge that were so close, so calm and so abundant.  Can you spot the 3-toed sloth below?

Or the toucan that watched us eat our breakfast?

In addition to the wildlife, horse, pig and dairy life, La Carolina sits along the banks of the Rio Celeste and within spitting distance of the Tenorio volcanic region and its waterfalls.

On our first morning we hiked nearly 2 hours through a national park rain forest, sinking several inches into thick mud as it rained on us as hard as any shower worth its salt.




We were so wet that when Baby-O slipped and fell in the mud, Carol and I had her wipe her completely brown hands on our rain jackets only to have them fairly clean again in short order. It was wet. It was exotic. 17 year Cicadas sang out a deafening chorus  all around us. Frogs sounded. Nocturnal spiders slept at the entrances of their web tunnels- still plenty scary.



 We saw plants good for kidney infections, parasites, and repelling mosquitos to name a few. When we descended the 200 steps it took to reach the falls, we saw this:

The water is that color due to mineral content and a chemical reaction that takes place. It is real.

Back at the ranger station we saw jars upon jars of they types of creatures who inhabit these parts. . . we were definitely outnumbered.

A tarantula and all those other legs belong to babies.

As we drove back through stunning pastoral scenery, we learned that a Swiss man had bought up parcel after parcel after parcel assembling an 850 hectare spread that he promptly deforested and in the words of our guide, "ruined the town" by putting people out of a job. With disgust, our guide showed us a lonely cluster of banana trees that the Swiss man had planted in an experiment to see if they would grow well. "They did not" declared our guide explaining it would have been detrimental to the rivers and forests for all the chemicals he would have used to produce them had they thrived. At one small stretch of land, he pointed to the left side of the road to a sign that read, "Friendship Ranch" and explained that it belonged to the "good Swiss man"- a different man who had bought some parcels but had chosen to reforest 4 different rare species of trees. He was growing hardwoods, vanilla and macadamia nuts for export and the guide exclaimed that the land was doing better than before he had acquired it. This Swiss man hired local people and had added value to the Earth and to the community. What a tale in contrasts. 

The next day we went to the local school to teach English, play soccer and donate a suitcase full of goodies Carol and the girls had brought down.



The school was down to only 8 children because so many families had moved away; before the Swiss man bought up so many small parcels there were 24 kids at the school. Our kids did a great job teaching English words.

As if it weren't enough, the Lodge includes incredibly robust and delicious meals cooked over a wood-burning stove. 

The food is hearty.

Tasty.

Made by hand and almost all grown at the ranch itself.

The food is served with a heavy dose of courage. None of the kitchen staff speak English and somehow they manage to serve up to 30+ people each day who more often than not, do not speak their language. They do it with an ease and grace that boggles this mind!

They even manage to pull off desserts as well as freshly prepared tropical juices at every meal. 

As if THAT weren't enough, we went to the stables to embark on an 1.5 ride around some of the ranch that would include rolling hills, creeks, forest, a substantial organic garden where nearly all the food is grown that is served at the Lodge. Sure the beauty was eye-popping and the cattle and horses that we passed beyond picturesque but what stopped us all in our tracks repeatedly was Alejandro, the same guide we had had that morning, the Lodge's foreman and everything-man. This man can ride. He was the Lone Ranger, Zorro, and John Wayne all wrapped up in one. He would charge past us at warp speed and elegantly turn and stop so in one easy movement he would open the next paddock gate. None of the other horses would even bat an eye. Carol, who is originally from Montana, and an experienced rider, was amazed at how calm the horses were and all without a bit. Alejandro is also their trainer, all 32 horses on the ranch. When I asked why he had no bounce and looked so smooth no matter how fast he was going he replied, "It is because I do nothing. One must completely relax. One should feel as rested at the end of a ride as you do at the beginning or it means you were trying to hard." 

Funny, it was the exact same advice that Carol received from the amazing surfing instructors the day before. I know I am gushing but honestly, this country's capacity for incredible experiences really defies normalcy. At every turn is a life-changer if you want there to be.

Yes. Everyone got up and had a blast. 

But more about that later. . .

After a soak in the fire-heated jacuzzi made out of stones that sits along the stunning Rio Celeste,

--- the kids danced, sang karaoke  and played tag and other yard games before we sat down all together with the other guests for another hearty meal. 

La Carolina stops time. It is lit by oil-lamps. There is no wireless. Just the sounds of Howler Monkeys, a raging river, insects and the bursts of laughter and conversation as people from all over the world meet and share in this special place. The strong wooden tables don't buckle but they should under the weight of the food that is piled on at each meal. The staff should be tired after doing laundry, cleaning and cooking for not a few people but they don't seem it. There is laughter here. Spontaneous exchanges. Philosophy too. 

I found Alejandro and Jose Manuel, the butcher,  sitting in lawn chairs behind the stables late one evening. Alejandro said, "Jose Manuel is my best friend and my best worker. When I tell him things once you can be sure they will be done and done right. I don't need to tell him a second or third time."  The friends collapsed in laughter when I said, "I just want to be sure I am clear on the schedule tomorrow. At 7 we urinate. .  ." turns out the word is really close to the word for 'milking a cow'!!

Really late that night as we said goodnight to Alejandro, Carol inquired about "the white horse" who had been sick that day. Alejandro touched his heart and said, "He is a great horse. His name is Paloma but he is very sick right now." He thumped his heart as he said, "I will carry him here whether he lives or dies. You have to remember the bad and the good." As I bade him goodnight, a man who runs a lodge and cabins for foreign tourists without speaking their language and serves as their guide leading a 4 hour hike every day through the rain forest, castrates and trains the horses- 32 of them, manages a staff of 22, oversees a large organic garden and 24 dairy cows, books the transports and other arrangements--- one comes away verklempt in the face of it all. All I could manage to say was, "You are very. . .wise. Did I say that word correctly? Because I don't mean to say that you are aloe." The words are dangerously similar. . . like urinate and 'milk a cow'. 

Everyone we met who was staying here from a 3 1/2 year old to a 70+ retiree, from Utah to France--- we were all gushing about the time spent at La Carolina Lodge. It's like going back in time and reliving your wildest childhood dreams or memories and colliding with 'bucket-list' hopes all rolled into one. Maybe it is the air (we were already in the middle of nowhere when we turned onto the unpaved road to complete the last 10 kilometers to reach the lodge), or the water- the Rio Celeste's roaring sound is never far, or the food--- imagine an all-you-can-eat homemade organic spread; whatever it is, everyone is beaming and glowing. It's one of the most expansive and expanding places I have ever visited. 

It is the type of place that once you walk it's paths, you can never see the world in the same way again.