Central South

Discover Central South

Located high in the central Talamanca Mountain range, San Gerado de Dota makes for a very different experience as part of a Costa Rican journey, especially when combined with time on either the Caribbean or Pacific coasts. The community is sited between 2,200 and 2,900m in the Savegre valley and at this altitude you’re in the southern cloud forests.

This area is a nature lover’s paradise, great for hiking and seeing countless different waterfalls and primary forests. San Gerardo de Dota is a great place to visit before heading back to the airport and will show you a completely different life zone: the cloud forest. Because San Gerardo de Dota is at a high altitude, the climate is much cooler and wetter than is the lowlands.

The most famous bird species of San Gerardo de Dota is of course the Resplendent Quetzal. Although this can be spotted in other sites in Costa Rica and beyond, San Gerado de Dota has become renowned as a place where you can reliably see this endangered and truly beautiful species. Both male and female have a body around the size of a pigeon. It’s the males though who are famed for their stunning colours and a vivid, ostentatious tail with feathers up to a metre long. To stand the best chance of seeing this rare bird, take a dawn tour and go with a guide. All nature guides in Costa Rica have a seemingly unnatural ability to spot the slightest movement and detail from far away!

Climate: San Gerardo de Dota is much cooler and fresher than at the coast, with night time temperatures around 12-15°C and daytime temperatures 23-24°C.