Exploring the Rainforest at La Amistad

At the camps, you will stay in rustic cabins and eat meals prepared in a dining hut over wood fires. Although you will be far from any civilization, you will still find flush toilets and running water. There will be no sounds or smells of civilization. You will be deep in a remote forest of unearthly beauty. Only the sounds of the birds, howler monkeys, crickets and frogs will break the silence, along with the wind and the sound of running streams.

At the first camp, Cotoncito at 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) elevation, you are just entering the premontane forest. Gnarled, giant strangler figs wrap around the straight trunks of mahogany relatives. A small beach in the stream invites a swim. Mysterious petroglyphs scratched in the boulders suggest pre-Columbian civilizations long lost, as does the nearby ancient Indian graveyard. Four trails allow you to penetrate deeper into the forest.

A long hike or horseback ride takes you the next day to Camp Cotobrus, at 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) in montane oak forest. Here the tall, majestic trees and the open understory suggest an elfin landscape, emphasized by echoing calls of bellbirds. From this camp, you can explore the forest on four surrounding trails, or walk to the waterfall, with its own misty microclimate of ferns, mosses and liverworts.