Costa Rican lodge is sanctuary that will remind us why we travel in first place

In early March, I boarded a canopied motor boat at Puerto Jimenez and sped across the placid gulf for 30 minutes to a secluded mile-long beach rimmed with palm trees. Playa Cativo Lodge, on the edge of Piedras Blancas National Park, came into view as its 18 guest rooms revealed their dark wood facades through a forest of trees, carefully tended lawns and an array of native flowering plants.