Bird Photography at San Gerardo de Dota : Batsu Gardens & Savegre Valley

An 8 a.m. start almost felt like a sleep-in. The goal for today was bird photography at San Gerardo de Dota, specifically, the Batsu Gardens in the Savegre Valley.

Breakfast was pretty underwhelming, although maybe that was because we couldn’t stop thinking about the Denny’s next door. It was kind of funny when another hotel guest asked why we were all dressed alike. I looked around and realised we’d all unintentionally embraced the universal Costa Rica bird photography tour uniform: hiking pants, quick-dry shirts, and muted colours.

Everyone in the group showed up on time, which is always a promising sign at the beginning of a group trip. Despite being in the middle of our much longer journey, we had by far the least luggage. We left the big bags back at the Hampton Inn and only brought what we jokingly referred to as our “side quest bags.”

There was plenty of room in the van though. Each of us had two seats, which meant camera gear could stay close at hand instead of disappearing into the back with the suitcases.

The Long Drive Out of San José

Traffic leaving Alajuela and San José was intense. After about two hours we stopped for a bathroom break, and it still felt like we were barely outside the city.

The gas station convenience store had a photo-worthy Hanukkah snowman decoration and statue of an older couple.

During the drive our tour leader shared some helpful camera settings advice and answered questions from the group. It was a nice way to ease into the trip while the scenery slowly shifted from city traffic to mountain roads.

Eventually the landscape began to look familiar. The road narrowed, the turns tightened, and soon we were descending the steep, winding road into Costa Rica’s famous Savegre Valley.

Returning to Savegre Valley

We’d done bird photography at San Gerardo de Dota once before, back in 2011. That trip did not go particularly well. My laptop died from heat and humidity. One of my cameras fogged internally. My little Leica was destroyed when it was in my pocket when I fell into the ocean. I lost a shoe in the sand while climbing out of a boat. Somewhere along the way I also picked up amoebic dysentery and spent four days in the hospital with C-diff when we got home.

The bar was therefore extremely low for this visit to be better than the previous one.

The road was just as steep and windy as we remembered, but thankfully everything else was already going better.

Lunch in San Gerardo de Dota

We arrived around 1 p.m. in the small mountain town of San Gerardo de Dota, which sits at roughly 2,300 meters elevation. The cooler air was a welcome change after the heat of the lowlands.

Our first stop was lunch at Alma de Árbol, and it turned out to be exceptional. It was hands down, the best meal of the trip. I ordered steak tacos, but the taco shells were made of crispy cheese instead of tortillas. Because of my onion allergy, the kitchen swapped the guacamole for what looked like an entire perfectly ripe avocado.

Hummingbird Photography at Batsu Gardens

After lunch we drove higher into the mountains to Batsu Gardens, about 400 meters above our lunch stop.

Batsu Gardens was a dream for bird photographers. Their logo, which combines a bird and a camera shutter, tells you immediately what kind of place it is.

The property has two main feeding areas designed specifically for photography. Both are covered and have comfortable seating, with multiple perches positioned around feeders so photographers can capture birds in natural-looking positions. There are also trails through the surrounding forest, along with a fully stocked fridge, coffee and tea, and even Starlink internet.

Since it was only our group there, we had plenty of space to move around and experiment with different setups. Hummingbird photography is unsurprisingly challenging. They move incredibly fast, and getting sharp images requires the right settings and timing. Having hours to practice in such a target-rich environment made it much easier to improve quickly.

Before long I found myself completely obsessed with hummingbird gorgets, those iridescent throat patches that flash brilliant colors depending on the angle of the light.

And there were other birds too…

Sueños del Bosque Lodge

Around 4:30 p.m. we drove a short distance to our lodge for the night, Sueños del Bosque. In an odd twist, it sits right next door to the lodge where we stayed in 2011.

The property is made up of individual cabins scattered along the valley floor. Our cabin, number five, had two double beds and a small balcony overlooking the forest. At this elevation it was surprisingly cold, cold enough that the idea of taking a shower felt completely unreasonable.

After settling in, we walked over to the Savegre Lodge to recreate a photo we had taken during our 2011 trip.

It was an excellent start to the trip. Considering how our 2011 visit had gone, Savegre Valley was already beginning to redeem itself.