Chinitas Eco Lodge

Chinitas is a charming little lodge with about 6 rooms in the quiet village of San Francisco, a 5min taxi boat ride north of Tortuguero. In our opinion the distance to the center is actually a feature, not at all an issue. The owner is a very kind lady, who was fun to talk to and took any chance she could to help and serve us (e.g. offering us free freshly cut coconuts from the garden, or an extra large beach towel). We did a very nice canal tour with Hernando, who exclusively works for Chinitas. Our Spanish is mediocre, so we were positively surprised by his English (especially when it came to animals). We were only our family of four in the boat, whereas most boats we saw were loaded with about a dozen people (which can be annoying if the animal you'd like to see happens to be on the "wrong" side of the boat. Breakfast was hearty and healthy, with fresh fruit, eggs, rice with beans and some extras. The room was not big, but clean and had all we needed incl. hot water shower. Note that you cannot swim in the rivers, but you can cool down in the sea on the East side of Tortuguero.