Ecolodge San Luis, University of Georgia

Overview

Description

The UGA Costa Rica project is on a 155-acre (63 hectares) property at 3,608 feet above sea level on the Pacific slope of the Tilarán Cordillera, in the community of San Luis de Monteverde. The San Luis Botanical Garden, established by the state of Georgia's Botanical Garden in the United States, is at the site and it is one of a group of beautiful gardens in Latin America.

The property is next to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Children’s Eternal Rainforest; these, along with Arenal National Park and the Alberto Manuel Brenes Reserve form the Arenal Monteverde Protection Zone, which protects more than 172,900 acres (70,000 hectares) of mainly primary forest. It is also part of the National Network of Private Reserves and we are an active member in the development and management of the Pájaro Campana (bellbird) Biological Corridor, which aims to recover degraded habitat and connect the Monteverde cloud forest with the mangroves on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Nicoya. This property is in a transitional zone between the cloud forest characteristic of the upper Monteverde part and the transitional dry forest characteristic of the lowest parts of Costa Rica’s northern Pacific region. Moreover, since the area is near the continental divide, there are several mountain passes to the Atlantic slope.

The arboretum has trails and gardens with edible and medicinal plants. The trails that are used for natural history hikes and research projects pass through a large part of the property with open areas and primary and secondary forest. The combination of ecological and geomorphological factors existing in the area increases the probability of observing a large number of plants and animals in a relatively short and accessible trip. The activities offered to our clients are led by naturalists well trained in the natural history and ecology of the zone; they are friendly and willing to make the best use of the time of our clients at our facility.

Our main campus includes a service area (food, laundry, library, Internet), an academic area with classrooms and laboratories, a residential area for students and professors and a lodge with cabins for families and ecotourists. We also have a loop trail more than 2 miles long, a botanical garden with medicinal, edible, ornamental, and native plant collections and a farm production area with horses and dairy cattle.

Materials that tourists should bring: rain wear, binoculars, plant and animal guide books, rubber boots or appropriate shoes.

Rooms

32

Making a Difference

Number of employees: 30

Percentage of local employees: 100%

The University of Georgia Costa Rica project offers many opportunities for students as well as responsible tourists to appreciate the great beauty and complexity of the Monteverde cloud forest from an academic perspective with a scientific basis; those who visit out campus have the opportunity to interact directly with the scientists and students working at San Luis.

The project has a water and electricity conservation program, and we encourage our guests to use these resources wisely. We also promote recycling and the purchase of biodegradable products, and composting our organic waste.

Our management policies prohibit feeding of the naturally occurring animals; this also minimizes the impact on wildlife.

In order to attain an optimal level of sustainability, we make use of the land available to produce 10% of our annual food needs organically, and have the goal of increasing our on-site production to meet 50% of our consumption by the year 2012. Moreover, we provide incentives to the local economy by purchasing products from neighboring farmers. We employ 30 people directly and we support the community tourism and integral development projects. We also organize home-stays with families for students and tourists who come to learn and practice Spanish, which helps to fairly distribute the income from lodging.

The UGA Costa Rica project is more than a simple stopover for naturalists; we work on education, ecotourism and conservation, small-scale production and research. We offer complete packages that include project activities as well as food and lodging. Visitors can also participate in a carbon sequestration program that we offer to mitigate the emissions of their trip to Costa Rica.

Our main activity is the development of educational programs for groups of national and international students and the University of Georgia offers multidisciplinary courses at our site; you can obtain more information about the courses from our Web site at www.uga.edu/costarica.

Tourists are invited to participate in our educational tourism programs that are led by naturalists dedicated to the study of the flora, fauna, and ecology of the zone. In this program the tourists can, during the planting season, help with the planting of trees in the biological corridor and in other seasons they can help prepare seedlings in our greenhouse; the participants are given a talk about this program and the biological corridor. We also develop educational vacation programs for families and ecotourists and we offer a wide variety of activities such as natural history hikes, bird-watching, night hikes, workshops for the identification of plants or insects or other organisms. For more details about the activities, see the Web page at www www.uga.edu/costarica/campus_activities.htm.

We have a research program and along with other organizations of the zone, governmental as well as non-governmental, we aim to learn about the different characteristics of the local environment in detail in order to provide useful and timely information to decision-makers and to support education.

Rates

$51 – $75

Rates are per person, per night, and include lodging, food, activities, and taxes.

We offer discounts for organized academic groups.

For more information about the rates or activities, visit our Web site at www.uga.edu or email reservcr@uga.edu or to fabricio@uga.edu.

Getting There

Nearest international airport: San José (SJO); Liberia (LIR).

The lodge is approximately 99 miles (160 km) from Costa Rica’s two international airports in Alajuela (Juan Santamaría) and Liberia. The road is paved most of the way, but the last stretch (approximately 40 km or 25 miles) should preferably be traveled in four-wheel drive vehicles or ones with chassis at least 20 cm (8 inches) of clearance.

Tour buses for 25 passengers enter without problem. Larger buses also enter, but may have some difficulty.

Additional Information

For more information and reservations, please send an e-mail to reservcr@uga.edu.

Date This Information Was Provided

February 2010.

Photo courtesy of Ecolodge San Luis, University of Georgia, Costa Rica, for SustainableTrip.org.