Cinchona: The Hummingbird Cafe That Rebuilt Itself

The magnitude-6.1 earthquake that shook the Cinchona area in January 2009 took the road, the hillside and the restaurant with it. What is standing today is not the original building: the family rebuilt smaller and more rustic on the same steep slope above the San Fernando Waterfall, and kept doing the one thing that had always worked — feeding the birds.

The feeders sit a few feet from the tables. That single detail is what turned a roadside soda into a pilgrimage site: hummingbirds such as Violet Sabrewing, Green Thorntail, Coppery-headed Emerald and Purple-throated Mountain-gem work the flowers at point-blank range, while Red-headed and Prong-billed Barbets, Northern Emerald-Toucanet, Silver-throated, Crimson-collared and Scarlet-rumped Tanagers, Red-legged Honeycreeper and Black Guan come to the fruit. A short 24-70mm zoom is often all you need.

We leave La Fortuna at 6:00 AM with a photo stop at the La Paz Waterfall roadside viewpoint on Route 126, and reach Cinchona around 8:00 AM for breakfast already surrounded by feeder activity. Two dedicated photography sessions (8:00-10:30 AM and 10:30 AM-12:00 PM, split by a coffee break) cover the feeders and the waterfall mirador, then lunch and the drive back. Very easy going: fixed platforms and a short paved mirador path, no trail hiking.