Photo Spot Summary
Country: Costa Rica
Category: Wildlife
City: Chilamate
GPS Latitude: 10.056322
GPS Longitude: -84.262115
Directions
From San Jose, head north on route 126. At San Miguel bear right to stay on route 126. Approximately 10 kilometers past La Virgen, Selva Verde Lodge will be on your right.
Photo Spot Details
You may wonder why I pick a lodge as a photo spot. This lodge is in the La Selva rain forest area, a couple of kilometers from the Biological station La Selva, a starting point for many nature hikes in the rain forest. The lodge overlooks the Sarapiqui River, an area filled with wildlife including monkeys, sloths, frogs, iguanas and abundant birdlife. Because the hotel staff leave fruit on platforms outside the dining room of the lodge, the birds are there in abundance – toucans, tanagers, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, aracaris and so much more. There are almost limitless opportunities for eye-level photographs of so many species of vibrantly colored birds.
If you are looking for a place to stay in the region, the lodge is a great place, built on stilts, it is surrounded by the sights and sounds of the rain forest. The lodge offers guided hikes and the biological station just down the road offers many more. This was one of our favorite stops on our trip to Costa Rica.
The photographs below show a sample of the birds and reptiles from the area. Most of these shots were taken from the deck of the restaurant. I primarily used a Nikon D600 with a Sigma 50-500mm lens for the shots shown here.
