As year-round residents of the zone, Miranda and Rodr guez have also become keenly aware of the need for an alternative to tourism for employment. We need help to keep everyone working. Punta Marenco and Marenco Biological Station employ caretakers, servers, domestic workers, cooks, tour guides and boatmen, but all the employment is driven by tourism dollars. Agricultural projects and logging would jeopardize the still vast stands of virgin forest, but the remoteness of the site leaves few alternative possibilities for remunerated work. But Rodr guez is confident that the same social consciousness that is rebuilding a rain forest and providing education to area children will also produce biologically sound economic alternatives for area residents.
Rooms have no fans or air-conditioning, but are cooled naturally by a night breeze off the hillside.
Electricity is produced by an on-site generator and is available all night. Packages include tours and meals. Special rates for longer stays are also available. Getting there is a three-step process that begins with a shuttle flight from San Jos to the southwest community of Palmar Sur, just north of the Osa Peninsula. From Sierpe, positioned along the banks of a like-named river, the lodge will arrange for water transport down river and out onto the Pacific Ocean aboard the small motor boats that serve as area workhorses, carrying people and supplies to the remote lodges of Drake and Osa.