Heliconias Lodge

After our night out at the casino in Alajuela it was time to head to our various projects. We headed off in a minibus and traveled to northern Costa Rica, dropping off the construction volunteers in San Ramon as we went.

Our first destination for our Conservation and Ecology volunteering would be Heliconias Lodge. Heliconias lodge is a reserve run by 10 local families in the foothills of Volcano Tenorio in the Upala region of Costa Rica.

Heliconias Lodge


As I say, the lodge is run by 10 local families and is one of the first of its type in Costa Rica. Originally the reserve was earmarked by the government to be deforested and used as farm land. However the local people protested and got together a petition against this and instead the land was passed over to the 10 families to be run as an Ecolodge and Reserve, with backing from an international tour company looking to build it's eco tourism credentials.

The lodge from above looking over the valley beneath


There were six of us volunteering at the lodge, four girls... Rhian, Ruth, Kelly and Laura, and then me and George. To begin with our accomodation was split into a four person room and a two person room, as such it made sense for me and George to take to the two person room. The girls were less than impressed when they realised that ment me and George were staying in a guest room in the lodge and they would be living in a space little bigger than a cupboard reserved for volunteers.

The smile was wiped off mine and georges face when, on the arrival of 70 missionaries from the US, we had to join the girls in the cupboard.

Mine and George's 5star Accomodation for the first week

A beautiful Heliconias sunset

Looking North to Lake Nicaragua

The builders yard with our cupboard accomodation... it looks bigger than it is



Lunchtime for the workers... left to right... George, Rhian, Ruth, Kelly and Laura

Because the reserve and lodge was run by so many families there seemed to be literally hundreds of people working there, each with their own roles. Donald was a guide and also heavily involved with teaching the local children english and other community projects.

Me and Donald in Leather cowboy hats. nice.

The local town to Heliconias was a small town called Bijagua and was a nice little place, Heliconias lodge sits 45 minutes walk further up the volcano in unspoilt rainforest... the most beautiful location to be working for a couple of weeks.

Bijagua town... under construction

The local carpark in Bijagua haha