I grew up around the corner from Michael Butler and was delighted to reconnect with him shortly after he and his wife Donna moved to Sag Harbor with their two young sons. I was even more delighted to learn that they had spent the past dozen years building, running and loving Playa Nicuesa, a unique, boutique eco-lodge in the heart of the rainforest in southern Costa Rica.
I recently asked Donna to share with us a bit about the Lodge and their adventures as an eco-innkeeping family.
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Macaroni Kid: Let's start at the beginning ... how did you end up with a Lodge in Costa Rica?
Donna: Nicuesa was first built in Michael's mind, and luckily we met, fell in love and ultimately I had the good fortune to become part of this amazing dream. We both have always had a passion for outdoor activity and conservation. Michael had done a lot of traveling both personalLY and professionally in Central and South America and had a background in community development and real estate. He always wanted to go back to Central America and create some sort of environmentally-friendly lodge that offered adventure activities – all with the goal of introducing and educating people about conservation.
I have a background in open space preservation, park planning and trail design. Thus, we were a great partnership to complete the vision and build a beautiful, environmentally sensitive lodge in a pristine location. Michael and I moved to Costa Rica in 2001 and built this lodge out of our passion for the environment and adventure.
Mac Kid: Playa Nicuesa is pretty remote isn’t it?
Donna: It is! Playa Nicuesa is located along the coastal rainforest of southern Costa Rica and reachable only by boat. We believe that the travel to the lodge is part of the experience – the immersion in nature that can be subtle and striking at the same time as you arrive.
Mac Kid: Can you describe the location for us?
Donna: It's pure paradise but also the real rainforest. Lush coastal rainforest behind us and the beautiful blue-green waters of the Golfo Dulce in front -- a bay off the Pacific Ocean with tremendous marine life including dolphins, whales and whale sharks. Our property is over 165 acres and backs up into a National Park. Your real neighbors are the monkeys and fish.
Mac Kid: Tell us about the lodge.
Donna: The lodge is constructed from naturally fallen trees, recycled materials and completely "hecho a mano" (hand made). Nevertheless, Nicuesa is considered a high-end eco lodge and despite its rustic location, we provide first-class service. Most of the employees are the Local Costa Rican's who are among the nicest people on the earth. People are awestruck when they are greeted at the local airstrip and taken by panga boat across the calm gulf to arrive at Playa Nicuesa.
We are a destination lodge – offering lodging, restaurant and tours. A great deal of the luxury of the lodge is not the marble floors or widescreen TVs of typical luxury hotels, but the fact that you have privacy in nature with a maximum of 28 guests in cabins spread out among the property.
Mac Kid: And you guys lived there for many years, yes?
Donna: Yes, we also built our home at the lodge. So basically, we built a place to host people from all over the world to come and experience nature as we had been enjoying it and appreciating it.
Mac Kid: Wow, that's a big change from your life in the States.
Donna: It was a quality of life decision to move to Costa Rica and create and live in a place where guests could come and experience nature in its most pure form. We spent a great deal of time on a business plan, but ultimately it was a bit of a jump into the unknown.
Mac Kid: Do you find people connecting not just with nature but with each other?
Donna: Absolutely. We wanted to create a place that people would not only experience and learn about the nature around them, but also meet each other and learn about each other and have these experiences together. So, we created a dining experience that is around one big beautiful handcrafted table where all meet for breakfast lunch and dinner – before and after any activities and tours they may have experienced. A true lodge feel.
Mac Kid: Speaking of meals, can you tell us a bit about the food?
Donna: We pride ourselves in the menu that is prepared fresh each day by our chefs. Each meal incorporates local fruit like papayas, pineapples, bananas, plantains … that are either grown on our preserve or are from the local market and much of the meals are based around the fresh fish caught by our staff or by guests when out on a fishing tour.
Mac Kid: Do many families visit?
Donna: Our guests come from all over the world. We have many families as well as single travelers, couples and groups that rent the whole lodge … for family reunions and wellness retreats and the like. People are disconnected from the world they left at home and truly connect with each other and with nature here.
Mac Kid: I understand your two sons were born in Costa Rica.
Donna: Yup. Our son Leo, now 10, spent the first five years of his life there and Henry spent his first two years living at the Lodge.
Mac Kid: What an incredible place to grow up!
Donna: It was and it was bittersweet leaving there and moving back to New York after so many years. We were afraid that much of their attraction to nature would be lost. But, it hasn't. We have incorporated our life lessons from Costa Rica in our life here in Sag Harbor. We return as a family four times a year and the boys LOVE it!! However, it would have been very interesting to see how the boys would have evolved as pure Jungle Boys.
Mac Kid: What have you observed about the family travel experience at the Lodge – what happens when a family really goes off the grid?
Donna: We see families truly connecting over things that are not typical in their daily lives without the distractions of everyday life that they are used to – mainly electronics. We have no TV or phone to distract the guests. Internet is only via guests cell phones. We do not have computer stations. This was a very deliberate choice so that people are truly in the moment, enjoying the experience without distraction. The diversity of activities and the fact that we tailor our activities and tours to the level of the guest make Nicuesa a great place for families. So hiking, kayaking or fishing can be enjoyable for any age. We even offer chocolate making tours! We also have a tour of our edible gardens and then show guests how to open a coconut, make sugar cane juice and then go back to the kitchen to make something delicious like a local deserts or some kind of appetizer for that night’s meal. Families have loved this… especially when they get to present their creations at dinner that night. Our staff has great experience working with families and usually the kids end up becoming best friends with the local nature guides and those connections are always very special for families.
Mac Kid: Tell us a bit more about your guides and some of the other tours you guys offer.
Donna: Like all our staff, our nature guides live at the lodge. They give tours each day such as dolphin watching, kayaking, mangrove river tours, inshore fishing – always a winner for kids since it’s pretty much a guaranteed catch – horseback riding, hiking to a waterfall, or trying to find one of the 250 kinds of birds or long list of mammals on the trails including three types of monkeys.
Mac Kid: Costa Rica takes sustainability pretty seriously, and I know you and Michael do too. Can you tell us a bit about that aspect of the Lodge?
Donna: We are a truly sustainable lodge. We have earned the highest level of certification of sustainability from the Costa Rican government and have employed a full-time sustainability coordinator for more than eight years who ensures that we are true to our environmental mission. We feel we have succeeded, not only when we see our guests having a great time, but also when we know that they are going to take some of this environmental education back home with them and practice it in some manner. Informally, guests are immersed in the conservation and protection issues via conversations with guides and other staff members, literature that is at the communal tables and even the "question of the day" that, if answered correctly, can earn a guest a complementary cocktail or smoothie at the bar that evening.
Mac Kid: Wow, can we come?
Donna: Anytime.
