Casa de Las Mujeres, Bribri Yorkin Indigenous Reserve

During my first year here (2015), I had this most adventurous of all trips with the Birding Club of Costa Rica. For three nights we slept in a thatched roof building elevated about 5 feet off the ground with no electricity and the ladies of the village cooked our meals on a wood-fire. In addition to looking for birds each day, we enjoyed cultural demonstrations on things like: how to make a thatched roof that will not leak, using bow & arrows for hunting, cooking meals from the garden, making chocolate from the cocoa bean, and a tour of their school. Plus we got there by going up the River Yorkin in dugout canoes! (Though they have added the modern convenience of outboard motors!) 🙂

Several Tour Companies can arrange a trip to this Bribri Village for one night plus day activities. I found the best information about it on this website: https://vaolo.com/en/lodges/casa-de-las-mujeres/

Some of their houses had tin roofs, but ours had a thatched roof.

Would I Go There Again?

Yes! And hope I can.

Likes

The simplicity of living with indigenous people.
Surrounded by deep, dark rainforests on the river that makes part of the border between Panama and Costa Rica.
The wonderful Bribri people we got to know.

Dislikes

Without electricity, I had to try and sleep without my CPAP machine which was difficult. But otherwise, a perfect trip!

BIRDS Slideshow from Yorkin Village . . .

Montezuma Oropendola
Long-tailed Tyrant
Birding Club Finding Birds!
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Gartered Trogon
Stripe-throated Hermit
Blue Ground-Dove

Nature & Other Activities

Hiking in the forest each day with this group’s goal of finding birds.
Getting to know the Bribri people and their village and some of their skills.
The dugout canoe trip there and back.

NATURE Slideshow from Yorkin Village . . .

Rooms & Meals

Though some of their houses had tin roofs, we were in a thatched roof building on stilts (to avoid occasional flooding).
The meals were all prepared by the women of the village on open fires and were basic, healthy and delicious.

They cooked our meals here as well as these cocoa beans for chocolate-making.

Getting There

You first get to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and in my case I went a day early and stayed a night in a hotel there. Like almost everywhere in Costa Rica, you can drive there in your car or hire a van or driver or there are some shared shuttle systems available where you ride in a van with other passengers. Caribe Fun Tours has one. From Atenas it is about 250 km or 5 1/2 hours drive.
Public Bus Service is available from anywhere in Costa Rica to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, usually changing buses in San Jose. Then from the center of Puerto Viejo you take a taxi ride to wherever you are told to meet for the canoe to the Yorkin Village.
My preference now is for Walter to take me to the Domestic Terminal at the SJO Airport and I Fly Sansa to the Limón Airport (landing strip) which is south of Limón, thus less than an hour to Puerto Viejo in a taxi.
Once you get on the canoe you are in their hands and are well taken care of.