El Silencio Lodge & Spa

In the Bajos del Toro cloud forest of the Poás Volcano region in Costa Rica’s central highlands, El Silencio Lodge & Spa occupies a valley of remarkable ecological sensitivity where the cloud forest’s permanent mist, the thundering Bajos del Toro waterfall, and the extraordinary biodiversity of the pre-montane rainforest create a sensory environment of complete natural immersion. The 16 bungalows are positioned above the river gorge in the cloud forest, with the constant sound of the waterfall and the birdsong of the highland forest providing the acoustic landscape of a stay in which the silence implied by the lodge’s name refers not to the absence of sound but to the specific quality of attention that natural sound demands. The Poás Volcano and Poás National Park are within a short drive above the lodge.

Guided walks to the waterfall in the lodge’s private cloud forest reserve, birdwatching for the resplendent quetzal and the extensive endemic bird community of the Bajos del Toro highlands, guided night walks for the glass frogs, kinkajous, and olingos that inhabit the cloud forest after dark, and volcano excursions to Poás’s acid crater lake are the principal activities. The spa’s programme draws on the cloud forest’s botanical resources in treatments that use the mist-harvested water, the endemic orchid extracts, and the medicinal plants of the Costa Rican highland tradition. The restaurant’s menus draw on the organic farming communities of the Alajuela highlands and the Pacific coastal seafood that arrives fresh each morning.

El Silencio’s conservation relationship with the surrounding cloud forest includes active partnership with the Poás Volcano National Park’s management and support for the reforestation programmes that are extending the cloud forest’s coverage on the agricultural land surrounding the lodge’s private reserve, giving the guest experience a conservation context that operates at the landscape scale rather than simply within the property’s boundaries.