Pérez Zeledón hotels collection

Between San José and the valley of the General, the Pan-American Highway crosses the Cerro de la Muerte, a páramo of dwarf bamboo, cold even at noon, which the first settlers crossed on foot. Then the road drops towards coffee bushes and the timber houses with corrugated iron roofs of San Isidro. Above San Gerardo de Rivas, a trail climbs towards Chirripó and its glacial lakes, from which both oceans can be seen on a cloudless morning. Alexander Skutch watched the birds of his farm until the end of his life. It is called Los Cusingos, after the local name for a toucan with an ember-red bill.