Sleeping Withthe Toucans
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100 GREAT PLACES TO STAY IN COSTA RICA Web Edition v. 2.0 February, 2009; Copyright © 2007 - 2009 HayFields Science Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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Costa Ricans and ex-pats alike speak reverently of the Osa Peninsula, and it's easy to understand why. Aside from the cattle ranches along the eastern side of the Osa and the plantations just south of Golfito, this is wild country. The mangrove estuaries and coastal rainforests of the Osa are the largest remaining on the Pacific side of Central America, and they support enormous biodiversity. There are more plant, insect, and bird species here than in all of North America, and highly endangered mammals like jaguars, spider monkeys, and tapirs stalk the forests. If you've come to Costa Rica for wildlife, don't miss the Osa.
The Osa has thus far been spared the kind of dense, high-impact development that mars northern Nicoya and the Jacó and Manuel Antonio areas, and several local organizations are fighting to keep it that way. Many of the lodgings here are set on enormous private reserves, the conservation of which is supported largely by their guests. Groups of landowners have banded together to create protected corridors for wildlife that effectively extend the borders of Corcovado National Park or other publicly-owned reserves. Even small establishments seem to devote substantial time and money to reforestation, plantings that provide food for wildlife, or other conservation efforts. Visiting the Osa can be expensive compared to other destinations in Costa Rica, but you can be sure that at least some of the money you're spending is helping to preserve this magnificent piece of the world.
Do not expect all the comforts of home here on the Osa. Many ecolodges, even the most luxurious, have limited electricity and no air conditioning, telephones or internet access. If you can't reach the front desk directly by telephone, it's probably because they communicate with their remote office - and everybody else not in shouting distance - by marine-band radio. Both Sansa and Nature Air have daily flights to Golfito and Puerto Jiminez and the best ways to get around once you're in the Osa are often by private air-taxi services or by boat. Getting 10 or 20 miles overland can easily take an hour and may be impossible if a river happens to be high. Don't even think about driving here without a strong, high-clearance 4WD and a good tolerance for crossing running water. One friend recalled a French tourist who arrived at his hotel in a tiny VW Bug. When he asked how on earth she'd made it, she explained that the car was really very light - only eight guys were needed to carry it!
We've come to expect a certain level of informality in the Osa. After one flight across the Golfo Dulce, we found that the pilot of our four-seater had no idea what the fare was. "I'm just filling in; I don't usually fly this plane" he said. We worked out a price that seemed reasonable all around, and he hopped back in his seat, bounced down the grass landing strip, and was gone. Hotel keepers will sometimes negotiate on rates, especially in the rainy season, and we've heard more than one story of guests without reservations being taken in and housed somewhere, anywhere, often for several nights. Need someone to pick you up at three a.m. in a remote location? Just ask, your host can probably figure some way to work it out. This is still the frontier.
Update - Drake Bay (March, 2009): We missed Drake Bay, located on the north coast of the Osa, on our first two Osa trips, in part because we'd heard it described mainly as a sport-fishing center. You can certainly go fishing from Drake Bay, but there's much more. Eco-lodges line the coast from Drake Bay to the border of Corcovado National Park, and there are several tucked away in the mountains behind. The Drake Bay area lacks the contemplative, somewhat ethereal atmosphere of the Matapalo area and the western Osa. People come here to have fun, especially fun involving boats. Caño Island National Park, with its snorkeling, plentiful dolphins and whale watching is less than an hour from Drake Bay; boats also go to the coastal ranger stations of Corcovado. There are rivers with waterfalls and remote beaches to explore. The atmosphere is laid-back and unpretentious. Development is minimal.
Most people come to Drake Bay by air (Sansa and Nature Air both serve the airstrip) or by boat through the mangroves from the river town of Sierpe, just below Palmar Sur. Drake Bay can be reached in the dry season by a 4WD drive road that crosses the mountains of central Osa; we've driven it, and unless you really like river crossings we don't recommend it. Drake Bay is very wet in the rainy season, and can be totally cut off for weeks at a time between September and November. Stick to the dry season or the July - August "little summer" if you're planning a trip.
Puerto Jiménez
Keywords: Oceanfront, Wildlife
Photo © Black Turtle Lodge
Contact Information:
506-2735-5005 (voice); 506-2735-5043 (fax)
info@blackturtlelodge.com
www.blackturtlelodge.com
Essentials:
2 Cabins, Two 2-BR Treehouses
English, Spanish
Visa, MasterCard accepted (extra charge)
Off-street parking
All meals included in room rate
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private (Treehouses) or semi-private
(Cabins) outdoor space
How to get here:
Follow the road that leads to Playa Platanares from the east side of
the Puerto Jiménez Airport (the side opposite the "terminal"). Bear
right after passing Crocodile Bay Lodge, following signs for Pearl of
the Osa or Playa Preciosa. Black Turtle's driveway will be on your
right. If you reach the Iguana Lodge, back up.
We arrived at Black Turtle Lodge the morning after a nest of turtle hatchlings emerged. The owner, Nico, was exhausted but ecstatic. He took over the Black Turtle from its builders only two years ago and joined a turtle-conservation group that carefully reburies the precious egg clutches in areas that can be protected from poachers. Now the second of this year's clutches had hatched, and the tiny turtles had swarmed into the waiting waves. That morning, at least, he looked for all the world like a proud father.
The Black Turtle is a five minute beach walk from the Iguana Lodge, but the two have very different atmospheres. Black Turtle is set back from the beach and surrounded by dense jungle. There are two one-bedroom cabins that share a bathhouse, and two two-story, two-bedroom "treehouses" that have their own outdoor bathrooms. The treehouses rent as units and are designed for adults upstairs (with the king bed) and children downstairs (on two singles). The bathrooms are downstairs which we didn't much like, being old enough to need at least one trip down the stairs at night. Bedroom walls upstairs and down are all screen, so privacy is provided only by the trees; you indeed feel like you're sleeping in a treehouse, but this is not a place where the overly modest will be happy.
Nico serves meals family style on the porch of his house, the main building on the property. There is also a pleasant sitting area here with a library a good deal more literary than is found in most Costa Rican hotels. There's no bar, but wine is included with dinner and you can start with a glass while sitting around outside the open kitchen, relaxing and discussing the day's adventures. Guests are clearly meant to interact at the Black Turtle - it's like an intimate B&B, but with the bedrooms (and the bathrooms) spread around in the woods.
The Black Turtle is a bit rustic and a tad too intimate for Alison's taste, but it's my (and some of our friends') favorite place near Puerto Jiménez. For me, it's Nico's determination to keep the place as wild as he can and the appreciative response of the area's wildlife. A cast-out male howler arrived soon after Nico did, collected some girlfriends, and now there's a resident troop which we could see lounging in a tree right over our heads on our hot first afternoon. Carablancas (white-faced monkeys) pass through, exchanging insults with the howlers, on their way from the mangroves to the beach. Squirrel monkeys cruised Nico's banana plantings soon after sunrise and reappeared in late afternoon for another round of foraging. Nico has seen sloths on the property, and even an ocelot. Macaws, parrots, and fish hawks stop here on their daily rounds. And of course, there are the turtles.
Update (February, 2008): Nico's built a lovely two-bedroom suite with a covered central common area and an attached bathroom - perfect for families or two couples travelling together. A tree house with an upstairs bathroom is on the way.
Update (March, 2009): Our friends Lea and Jim report that Black Turtle is better than ever. The gardens have grown up, the food is great, the raked-sand trails allow walking around and to the beach without shoes, and there is a lovely covered yoga platform nestled among the trees.
Puerto Jiménez
Keywords: Oceanfront, Happening Place, Wildlife
Photo © Iguana Lodge
Contact Information:
506-8829-5865 or 506-8848-0752 (voice)
info@iguanalodge.com
www.iguanalodge.com
4 Rooms, Two 2-BR Treehouses, one 3-BR House; 8 Rooms next door
at Pearl of the Osa
English, Spanish
Visa, MasterCard accepted (extra charge)
Off-street parking
Swimming pool
All meals included in room rate (Iguana Lodge)
Room Amenities: Ceiling fans, Private (Treehouses) or semi-private
(Cabins) outdoor space at Iguana Lodge
How to get here:
Follow the road that leads to Playa Platanares from the east side of
the Puerto Jiménez Airport (the side opposite the "terminal"). Bear
right after passing Crocodile Bay Lodge, following signs for Pearl of
the Osa or Playa Preciosa. Iguana Lodge is on your right, followed by
Pearl of the Osa.
Playa Plantanares may be the best swimming beach in Costa Rica. Its gentle arc faces east across the Golfo Dulce, protected by a reef about 100 meters out. The slope is perfect - wade a few meters out and you're in waist, then chest-deep water - and the incoming tide is just strong enough to build an occasional wave that breaks over your head. The sand is, well, sand colored, and the few rocks have been polished smooth. There's some driftwood to sit on, and the Iguana Lodge has also thought to provide a line of thatched palapas. Best of all, you're far enough from Puerto Jiménez that no one's likely to be here unless they're staying at the Iguana, the Pearl, or the Black Turtle next door. Walk a little ways north or south and it's as if you're on your own private beach.
The two casitas and two 2-bedroom cabins of the Iguana Lodge are separated from the beach by a light screen of palms, and the Pearl of the Osa restaurant with its upstairs rooms looks toward the beach across a broad grass lawn. The Pearl is the area's liveliest bar, so we can only recommend staying there if you're into staying up late or sleeping right over the party. The Iguana, on the other hand, offers privacy, manicured tropical gardens, and a beautiful thatched-roof rancho with downstairs sitting and breakfast areas and an upstairs formal dining room for dinner. The casitas and cabins have wood-frame bedrooms with walls of screen on three sides to let in air and the view. The cabins have a downstairs bedroom with a deck and an upstairs bedroom with a private balcony. Each bedroom has an attached bathroom with curved concrete walls and bright colors. How about yellow and blue with a bright pink shower to wake you up in the morning?
The upstairs and downstairs bedrooms in Iguana's cabins rent separately, so ask for an upstairs room unless you don't mind a certain amount of tromping around over your head. Besides, the upstairs rooms have more sea breeze and a better view. Friends traveling together might opt for both rooms of a cabin, but for larger groups Iguana also offers a three-story, three-bedroom tropical-style house situated just a few trees from the beach. The bottom floor is an open kitchen and eating area; the top floor is a spacious master suite. You can cook here yourself or join other Iguana guests for the nightly fixed-menu feast served in the upstairs dining room of the main palapa.
The Iguana offers a full assortment of toys including bicycles, boogie boards and kayaks, and even heavy rubber boots in case you care to venture into the mangroves on foot. (We wouldn't recommend this - take a kayak.) There is a small yoga platform by the beach, somewhat incongruously sporting a multi-function weight machine. As far as we can tell, though, the main guest occupations here are romantic sunrise and sunset beach walks and lounging in or near the surf.
Update (February, 2008): Fridays are "pasta night" at the Iguana, and that mean a pasta buffet and serious party next door at the Pearl, with lots of people from town and loud music - Latin techno-pop when we were there. If you're not into partying, head for Barbara Burkhardt's Jade Luna for an equisite meal on a quiet outdoor patio. The party ends at 9 PM, so you can still go to sleep with the sounds of the surf and the night birds.
A pair of scarlet macaws are nesting in a dead barragon tree just outside Iguana Lodge's main palapa. All their friends show up daily to discuss the matter. Eight or more lapas all talking at once is quite a racket!
Playa Matapalo
Keywords: Oceanfront, Yoga/Meditation
Photo © Ojo del Mar
Contact Information:
506-2735-5531 (voice)
ojodelmar@yahoo.de
www.ojodelmar.com
Essentials:
4 Cabins (3 with shared baths)
English, Spanish, German
Cash or traveler's checks only
Secure parking
Breakfast included, Restaurant.
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private or semi-private outdoor space
How to get here:
Take the road from Puerto Jiménez toward Matapalo and Carate; this
is the main coastal road around the eastern side of the Osa Peninsula.
Ojo del Mar is on the ocean side about 40 minutes from Puerto
Jiménez, across from bright-blue Carbonera school. Look for a sign
with an eye. If you see Lapa Rios, you've gone too far.
Under a hanging brass gong, guitars and several sizes of conga drums stand ready in one corner of the bamboo-and-thatch dining palapa at Ojo del Mar,. We're not players, but we expect that on many nights there is music here under blazing torches or softer clusters of candles, with the sounds of the jungle for harmony and the gentle surf in the background. And afterwards, just the jungle, the surf and the night sky. There is something very peaceful about places like Ojo, with no electricity and hence no artificial lighting and no generator racketing through the night.
Ojo del Mar calls itself a "simple life retreat," and the atmosphere seems somewhere between a counterculture commune and a monastic retreat. Carefully arranged stone cairns (some cemented for greater permanence) line the paths, surround the beachfront yoga platform, and appear here and there among the trees. Painted gourds, shells, and bits of shiny metal hang as decorations. Walls are painted with stars, spirals, geometrical designs. A small stuffed teddy bear sits on a post, waiting no doubt for Christopher Robin or the Eternal Child in whichever guest stumbles upon it, picks it up, and reflects on the combination of playfulness and fiercely-defended innocence that Ojo embodies perhaps more than anyplace else we've encountered here on the Osa Peninsula or, for that matter, in all of Costa Rica.
Ojo del Mar's four cabins are all different, made of wood or bamboo, with porches, hammocks, and open-air designs. The two-story "beach house" offers a second, upstairs bedroom under its peaked roof. Each cabin sports a collage of decoration - painted eyes, colorful batiks, shell curtains, little piles of stones or arrangements of shells - some, no doubt, added by guests. Showers are outdoor but private, screened by partial walls or banks of dense plantings. Bathrooms are separate from the cabins, connected by paths through the trees. You'll need a flashlight to find your way if you're the sort who gets up in the middle of the night.
Yoga is an Ojo del Mar specialty, practiced on the lovely platform bordering the beach. It's a pleasure just to sit here, listening to the waves and feeling the constant breeze. Stretches are an extra.
The owner, Nico, serves vegetarian meals in the central rancho, favoring organic produce from her own gardens or neighboring growers. If you're headed off for the day, she can pack you a healthy lunch. For a taste of another lifestyle, take some of the money you've saved staying here and head up the road for lunch at Lapa Rios where you can see and be seen with the glitterati.
Playa Matapalo
Keywords: Birding, Relax/Get Away, Wildlife, Hiking
Photo © Bosque del Cabo
Contact Information:Essentials:
15 Cabins, 4 Houses
English, Spanish
All major credit cards accepted
Secure parking
Swimming pool, Beach access, Massage
All meals included in room rate
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, In-room safe, Private or semi-private outdoor space
How to get here:
Take the road from Puerto Jiménez toward Matapalo and Carate; this
is the main coastal road around the eastern side of the Osa Peninsula.
Bosque del Cabo is on the ocean side about one hour southwest of
Puerto Jiménez, just past Lapa Rios.
You may think it's nothing but fun flitting from place to place, staying in luxury hotels, eating fabulous meals, bathing in limpid pools under cascading waterfalls and being wakened in the mornings by wandering troops of howler monkeys. You'd actually be right. But every now and then the constant on-the-go gets a little tiring and a girl just needs a good massage. Bosque del Cabo was clearly the place to get it.
From the moment we pulled up the long, tree-lined driveway and saw the spacious lawns spreading out around the thatch-roofed lodge I thought, Aaaahhhh, I'm going to like it here. I sought out Jutta, the resident massage therapist, and she led me back into the jungle about 200 meters beyond the swimming pool to a small grove surrounded by huge trees. It was perfectly silent except for the sound of wind rustling the leaves and birds singing. Jutta told me that one day an ocelot emerged from the trees and padded by when she was giving a massage. I lay on my back on her table, gazed up into the lush green canopy, and surrendered myself to pure bliss.
The massage renewed me enough to join Chris on a hike down one of Bosque del Cabo's trails, across a small river (there's a waterfall further downstream) and up through primary rain forest, then back to our room by the tropical garden and the frog pond. As well as trails through the jungle, you can walk to the Pacific coast (only accessible during low tide) and to the Golfo Dulce where you can swim at one of several beaches and then arrange for the folks at Bosque del Cabo to pick you up. Bird-watching in the garden or from the lodge is fabulous and all types of jungle animals, even large cats like pumas, have been spotted in the 600+ acre forest reserve.
Eleven thatched-roofed, screened bungalows are situated in the gardens around the lodge, each with a private deck overlooking the ocean and a modern bathroom with an outdoor shower. The furniture is simple bamboo, elegant in its classic design. A ten-minute walk from the lodge, across a long suspension-bridge, the two open-air garden rooms are smaller and less luxurious (and less expensive), but tucked into the jungle in a way that makes you feel like you're on safari. If you're traveling with friends or family, you might prefer one of the three houses, two with ocean views, that Bosque also offers.
All meals are served in the main lodge (which made walking across the suspension bridge to our room after dinner a real adventure) and are simple but well-prepared. Before dinner, guests gather at the poolside bar to compare their day's activities. Dinner is served family-style and lunch can be a picnic prepared ahead of time for taking with you. Despite its proximity to the jungle, Bosque del Cabo feels country estate-like in its garden setting 500 meters above the ocean. It's the perfect place to renew yourself.
Update (March, 2009): Bosque del Cabo is still beautiful. It now incorporates and protects even more property (although there are no trails in the new area yet) and has even more wildlife as documented by long-running night-time "camera-trap" observations. We were surrounded by collared peccaries and watched three different troops of spider monkeys on an early-morning walk up the "titi" trail, but missed a puma that was sighted behind the main lodge while we were out!
Owners Kim and Phil are planning to rent their own beautiful 4-bedroom house overlooking the Pacific starting in December 2009. Reserve early - spaces are already going fast.
Playa Matapalo
Keywords: Honeymoons, Wildlife, Birding
Photo © Lapa Rios
Contact Information:Essentials:
16 Bungalows
English, Spanish
All major credit cards accepted
Secure parking
Swimming pool, Beach access
All meals included in room rate
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private outdoor space, In-room safe,
Breakfast delivered to your room
How to get here:
Take the road from Puerto Jiménez toward Matapalo and Carate; this
is the main coastal road around the eastern side of the Osa Peninsula.
About an hour from Puerto Jiménez, Lapa Rios is on the right, just
after you ford the river.
The monos congos (howler monkeys) launched into their morning howls at 3:30 a.m., with the still-full moon high above the trees. They stopped after 15 minutes and we drifted back to sleep until five o'clock when they started again, this time in earnest, this time to greet the dawn. As the sun rose, they crashed through the trees while Alison tested the fast setting on her new camera. As we watched and photographed, we also took odd shots of the toucans, Mealy parrots, aracaris, and Linneated woodpeckers that passed through our little circle of trees. No need to go looking for birds and animals here at Lapa Rios; they come to you.
Lapa Rios is the height of rainforest luxury, a destination for honeymooners and top-tier vacationers who didn't want to fly all the way to Tahiti this year. Someone hands you a drink the moment you walk in the door, then asks you what you'd like for dinner. Your bags are arranged in your spacious private bungalow by the time you walk down the trail (which can be quite long, depending on where you're located). Bamboo shades roll up to reveal walls of nearly-transparent screen and doors open onto completely private decks with rockers, lounges, and hammocks. Fourteen of the bungalows look down onto the Playa Matapalo beach, two overlook a steep jungle canyon. Coffee and warm milk are discretely delivered to your bungalow at 6 a.m. Meals are served in a beautiful open palapa, with a three-turn spiral staircase running up to a covered observation deck just below the roof's peak. The menu is varied, the food is excellent, and the Lapapalapa bar will mix up anything you might like. The staff is extraordinarily attentive; it seemed like everyone at Lapa Rios knew our names within five minutes of our arrival.
Lapa Rios is one of the oldest and, at 1,000 acres, one of the largest ecolodge reserves in Costa Rica. If you're here looking for wildlife there is little reason ever to leave the property. On a good day, all four Costa Rican species of monkeys can be seen from the deck of your bungalow or even from the restaurant. A one-hour trail down to a nearby waterfall and back to the main lodge is perfect before breakfast, and you can always walk to the beach. Most excursions into the jungle require a naturalist guide who knows the trails as well as the creatures. The night walk, in search of frogs and nocturnal mammals, is one of the most popular. Lapa Rios takes preservation and low guest impact seriously; you can even take a "sustainability tour" that explains such down-to-earth basics as the generation of gas for the kitchen stoves from yesterday's leftovers.
As we were saying good-bye after our morning with the howlers, we overheard a dainty young woman complain about the lack of air conditioning and the terrible long walk in her silver slippers to get to her room. This is Costa Rica, not Paris. Keep in mind that even at ultra-deluxe Lapa Rios, you're still in the jungle.
Update (March, 2009): Lapa Rios has new managers: Costa Rica's sustainability-focused Cayuga Group. It's still our very favorite place to wake up in the morning, and fresh coffee was already outside our door at 5:15. Unlike many of Costa Rica's ultra-luxury hotels, Lapa Rios has not compromised on its basic principles of sustainability and authenticity. The staff is still mainly local, there are no phones or TVs or internet, and the villas have screens but are otherwise open-air. There's nothing generic about Lapa Rios: it is unmistakably Costa Rica.
Carate
Keywords: Wildlife, Birding, Yoga/Meditation
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:Essentials:
3 Rooms, 8 Bungalows, 5 Tents with platforms
English, Spanish
All major credit cards accepted
Secure parking
Swimming pool, Beach access (It's a hike!)
All meals included in room rate
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private or semi-private (Cabins) outdoor
space, Internet access available (extra charge)
How to get here:
Fly to Carate. Or, if driving, Luna Lodge is at the end of the Coast
Road, about two hours from Puerto Jiménez. Turn up the hill just
past the Carate airstrip, cross the Carate river twice, and keep going
until you see Luna Lodge. You can't go any farther.
An urgent keening interrupted breakfast, and Lana ran out from the kitchen closely followed by several of the Luna Lodge staff. "The white hawk," she cried excitedly. "My power bird!" Two white hawks circled slowly above our heads, calling plaintively. We watched as they drifted in widening then narrowing circles, up the Carate's tree-lined canyon then farther east until they were out of sight. Lana later explained to us, during a break in our yoga session on her platform high above the lodge, that the white hawks appeared whenever she had difficulties. We viewed them as a good sign.
Lana Widmore has been a cook, a sailing captain, and a guide in both Australia and Costa Rica. With money earned for clean-up work after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, she bought a former fruit-tree farm up the steep canyon of the gold-bearing Rio Carate and created Luna Lodge. There are places that are off the beaten path, and then there are places like Luna, two hours of rough road from Puerto Jiménez, bordering the vast Corcovado reserve. The end of the line. From here, the only permitted form of transport is your own feet. Guests have been stranded at Luna when heavy rains rendered the Agua Buena river unfordable, at least until the weather cleared enough for the air taxi from Puerto Jiménez to land on the gravel strip on the beach at the mouth of the Carate. What a tragedy - a few extra days at Luna, days of isolation and utter calm.
If you are looking for lowland rainforest birds, you can't do much better than this. On our first afternoon we saw pairs of toucans, macaws, aracaris, kiskadees, and Red-lored parrots, all from the private front deck of our peak-roofed bungalow. I watched two scarlet macaws expertly eating not-yet-ripe almonds 15 feet above my head. The next morning in a short walk we saw more toucans, more macaws, plus trogons, brilliant sky-blue and black cotingas, manikins, and many other colorful little songbirds. And then the white hawks. Lana has even seen Harpy eagles here, fearsome birds with two-meter wingspans that can seize monkeys and sloths from the dense forest trees.
Luna Lodge offers a range of lodging options: beautiful circular bungalows with peaked roofs, bamboo walls, and open-air bathrooms; conventional "hacienda" rooms for those who prefer a more traditional and enclosed sleeping environment; and two-bed tents on wooden platforms set among the trees above the yoga platform. Bungalow #7 - where we stayed - is a steep climb but has the best view; #1 and #2 are the easiest to access for those who don't like steps. The hacienda rooms are right next to the main palapa; #9 has windows on two sides looking into the jungle. All the lodgings are placed so as to provide a sense of intimacy, and a direct connection to the surrounding jungle.
Playa Zancudo
Keywords: Downtown, Oceanfront, Birding, Fishing
Photo © Cabinas Los Cocos
Contact Information:Essentials:
4 Cabins with full kitchens
English, Spanish
Cash only
Off-street parking
Restaurants nearby
Room Amenities: Ceiling fan, Private or semi-private outdoor space,
Full kitchen, In-room safe
How to get here:
Call Andrew at Los Cocos and arrange to be picked up by boat in
either Puerto Jiménez or Golfito. Otherwise, Zancudo is about an
hour's drive from Golfito; Cabinas Los Cocos is in town on the beach
side of the road.
Andrew slows the boat just enough for us to slide down the big waves that have appeared in the otherwise-flat Golfo Dulce, and then to skate up and over the crests. It's an El Nino year, and the rain runoff down the Rio Coto Colorado has been insufficient to carve a new channel; hence the river mouth is a broad, flat expanse of sand extending far out into the bay, and the incoming surf breaks as if on a beach. We clear the flats into the river proper and land. Zancudo has no airport, and it's a long, bumpy drive out from Golfito. The best way to get here is by boat and Andrew is our host at Cabinas Los Cocos, right on the Playa Zancudo beachfront.
The town of Zancudo occupies a six-kilometer spit of sand separating the mangrove-filled estuary of the Rio Coto from the Golfo Dulce. The palm-lined black-sand beach slopes almost imperceptibly into the sea. At high tide you can walk out 20 or 30 meters and be less than knee-deep. At low tide the water glistens on top of the sand, mirroring the sun during the day and the moon and stars at night. The frustrated currents of the gulf have piled generations of driftwood here, from worn bits of finished planks to huge sand-polished stumps with roots still twisting off in every direction.
An interesting ex-pat community has washed up in Zancudo as well. Susan England bought the land where Los Cocos now sits almost 30 years ago, and she and Andrew built a boat-service and tour business and then the cabinas in the years that followed. After Jerry Garcia departed this world for his final trip, their "Dead-head" neighbors Rick and Lori moved from California to open Sol y Mar, the place to head for breakfast, lunch, or after-dinner entertainment. Italian chef Alberto came about the same time. Let him know in the afternoon and he'll make you a fabulous dinner at his Puerta Negra restaurant down the road. Zancudo, it seems, is one of those nowhere places to which people migrate from whatever life they had before and then stay. Alison is reminded of her misspent youth in Brown County, Indiana, where the music was always good, life was not quite communal but pretty relaxed, everyone got by somehow or other, and the force of gravity exerted a strong pull on whoever thought about leaving.
Los Cocos has four cabins; two hand-built of mangrove logs and palm thatch, and two reassembled and decorated former banana-workers' dwellings from the old United Fruit operation on the Rio Coto. All have full kitchens. The biggest is #2, where we stayed. Upstairs from the broad front porch is an open loft with a second double bed, a completely private, hidden space. It's about 50 feet of sand and palm trees to the beach. Split coconut hulls edge the plantings of bananas and heliconias. Andrew's whimsical sculptures, carved from unset concrete, stand along the pathways with a Buddha or two keeping watch as well. The light breeze off the gulf rocks our hammocks. No worries. Maybe we won't leave tomorrow after all ...
Punta Banco
Keywords: Oceanfront, Wildlife, Birding, Hiking, Kid-friendly
Photo © Alison Tinsley
Contact Information:Essentials:
10 Cabins
English, Spanish
Credit cards accepted in advance, Cash only at Lodge
Secure parking
Swimming pool
All meals included in room rate
Room Amenities: Ceiling fans, Private or semi-private outdoor space
How to get here:
Fly from Puerto Jiménez or Golfito. Otherwise, Tiskita is about three
hours south of Golfito, at the very end of the coast road. Follow signs
to Pavones and then to Banco. The road turns into Tiskita's driveway
just after it crosses the grass landing strip.
We were walking back to Tiskita's main lodge from our cabin when I sensed motion and whirled to face a beautiful blue snake almost two meters long eyeing me, its tongue tasting my scent from a distance. A bullet-shaped head - clearly nonvenomous - so the snake and I just watched each other for a few moments, and then it virtually flew across the path and into the woods. A mica, said Tiskita's owner Lisbeth, a racer, consumer of rodents and other snakes. Always a good omen.
Peter Aspinall homesteaded this land when he got out of school almost thirty years ago, and he and Lisbeth built Tiskita first as their home and then as a guest lodge over the course of two decades. Fruit trees are Peter's passion, and over 100 varieties, endemic and exotic, thrive in his carefully-tended orchard. On a long morning walk, he leads us through re-forested hillsides that had once been slashed and burned by small-scale farmers and then takes us further into the orchards, stopping to name trees and explain the lifestyle, ecology, and human uses of each. Peter nurtures trees from seed and plants constantly, sometimes to produce human-edible fruits, but also to provide shade, encourage forest succession, provide food or nesting sites for birds or mammals, and improve the heavy clay soils with nitrogen fixation. We cross a little stream several times - it marks a rough boundary between cultivated and wild land. Later we make our way above this stream's spectacular rock-faced waterfall to bathe in deep pools cut in the bedrock. Here we are surrounded by jungle. Tiskita is an 800-acre reserve, nearly all of it untouched rainforest.
Tiskita offers ten cabins, four individual (# 6, 7, 14, and 17) and the rest designed for families or groups with two or three bedrooms with private bathrooms in each cabin. All are different in details, but have ample porches, outdoor showers, and considerable privacy. Lisbeth installed outdoor showers even in the few cabins with fully-enclosed bathrooms. She explains that one needs to shower often in the humid tropics and, besides, it's more fun to shower outside. We reflect on the fact that many visitors to Costa Rica dwell in northern cities or suburbs and may never have taken their clothes off outdoors. Tiskita can cure that.
Over breakfast, we expressed our delight that we, who were staying in the cabin named Titi, were visited in the morning by a whole troop of titis - golden-furred squirrel monkeys who appeared suddenly just after dawn and then disappeared, heading deeper into the woods after about 15 minutes of rambunctious play. Lisbeth told the story of an elderly woman, the oldest member of a birdwatching group, who simply sat on the deck of her Tiskita cabin and saw as many different birds as did all of her friends who were searching through the forest. "It's always interesting," she concluded, "every day is different. You just have to be still and watch."
We arrived at La Paloma utterly bedraggled, having driven across the mountains in a wild downpour, forded half a dozen rising rivers, found someone to radio to the hotel that we'd made it, and waited on the beach for the boat to take us to La Paloma's dock. Sue, who built La Paloma with her husband Mike, met us with a drink and "of course" we could still have lunch this late in the day. In fact our table was waiting. We later saw other guests being similarly greeted, regardless of when they arrived.
"Gracious" is the best description of La Palmoa, one of the Drake Bay area's oldest eco-lodges. The polished wood floors, wicker furniture and candle-lit dining evoke a previous century - a genteel country lodge in the 1920's, maybe. The four rooms are spacious and airy, with fully-private outdoor space (we recommend room D, which has an extra balcony overlooking the jungle). The seven "ranchos" are even more spacious, and can easily accomodate two couples or a family. All offer sweeping views. There's not a TV in sight.
La Paloma offers daily tour boats to Caño Island and to Corcovado, and can arrange other activities in the area. Kayaks, boogie boards and snorkeling or SCUBA gear are available. A 10-minute walk takes you to a secluded beach; it's a 20 minute walk or a quick boat ride to the town of Drake's Bay. Most guests come for several days to sample area activities; package deals that include transportation from San José are available.
Reviewed March 21, 2009
Summer camp for adults - and for adventurous families - that's Aguila de Osa. The first structure you see when you enter through the grand waterfront gate with its playful stone dolphins is the dive shop. Salsa music plays all day in the rancho, iguanas bask in the trees, and the bar is always open. Guests disappear after enormous early breakfasts, and re-appear later, soaking wet, with tales of tropical fish, dolphins and whales, hikes up waterfalls or long rambles through the rainforest. Everyone is relaxed. Everyone except the teenage girl who doesn't like reptiles is happy. She'll get over it. How can anyone not like iguanas?
Lunch and dinner are served family-style on platters so big that your neighbor slides them down the table to you instead of picking them up. Summer-camp food was never this good or this varied, but then again my summer camp didn't serve wine with dinner. Our dinner companions were a mix or Europeans and North Americans, couples and families, first-timers and people who keep coming back to Costa Rica. All say they were looking for someplace remote and genuine and settled on Drake because it looked like there was a lot to do. They were right on all counts.
Rooms at Aguila are in three buildings arranged along the ridge above the rancho. All are open-air with screens and fans, spacious shared verandahs and expansive views out to the bay. Even in high summer for Costa Rica, the breeze from the sea kept us comfortably cool all night. A pot of coffee magically appears on the verandah about 4 AM - the best coffee service in Costa Rica. Two scarlett macaws chose an almond tree just outside our room for a raucous extended breakfast. Resident bats patrol from dusk to dawn - we neither saw nor heard a single mosquito.
Reviewed March 22, 2009
We were a bit worried as we splashed across yet another rain-swollen river on our way to Jumanji; we'd left the little town of Drake Bay well behind and were penetrating deeper into the woods on ever-narrower roads. But no problem, once across we were there. Simone met us at the gate with glasses of fresh carambola juice from her own trees. We could relax for the afternoon and prepare for the main event - dinner prepared by Simone's partner Vladimir, the chef who had "escaped" from the commercial bustle of Manuel Antonio to open a restaurant and then this tiny 2-cabin lodge in the middle of nowhere.
Jumanji is less than a year old, but is already famous among readers of Dutch travel magazines. One reason is that guests see lots of wildlife. Pumas and tapirs have appeared on Jumanji's road; Simone once heard a jaguar roaring nearby while home by herself. Another is the sense that you've met Costa Rica's modern-day pioneers, building their house and their cabins, running a pipe from a neighbor's waterfall to fill their hand-dug continuous-flow swimming pool, growing their own fruits, sugar cane and vegetables. And then there's dinner. We suggested to Vladimir that he cook whatever he felt like cooking. We were rewarded with tomato, garlic and olive-oil bruschetta, fresh tuna carpaccio, and then tuna steaks with the best green peppercorn sauce I've had anywhere, France included, all followed by a delightful tiramisu. Yes, this gets our "Destination Restaurant" star. We haven't had food like this anywhere else in the Osa.
The cabins at Jumanji are rustic. But who cares? It's absolutely dark at night, all you hear are the sounds of the jungle, and you just had a Perfect Meal. Tomorrow morning Simone will greet you at sunrise with a beautifully-made espresso. Life is good.
Reviewed March 23, 2009
El Remanso is perfectly situated. The rooms, casas and rancho are perched on the cusp of a narrow ridge looking out to the Pacific, with deep canyons on either side. Clear streams with waterfalls tumble down these canyons, providing cool plunging pools and waterfall showers for you, and hydro-power and a drinkable water supply to El Remanso. Trails wander through the canyons, along the neighboring ridges, and down to the beach. An hour's morning walk takes you to the crashing Pacific surf, relaxing tide pools, the base of a 40-foot waterfall that removes the sea salt in no time, and back to the rancho in time for breakfast.
El Remanso was built by Greenpeace activists Joel Stewart and Belén Momeñe after they sailed the Rainbow Warrior into the Golfo Dulce to help stop a massive clearcutting operation in the rainforest. It is now managed by their daughter Adriana and her partner Daniel, and is pervaded by a sense of self-reliance and ecological sensitivity. Unlike at some eco-lodges, however, one doesn't feel any expectations here, no subtle pressure to do or be any particular way. Everything is relaxed. The land and its inhabitants are allowed to speak for themselves.
El Remanso offers six rooms and five casas. We recommend the "Cruz de Sur" room for its splendid view and open-air design, or the two-story, two-bedroom "Casa Vainilla," screened on the bottom and completely open on top.
Reviewed March 24, 2009
Update (January, 2010):
Last week we went back to El Remanso for three days of rest, relaxation and adventure. Since we're normally in and out of the lodgings we review in 24 hours, a three day span was a real luxury - and El Remanso was the perfect place to spend some "quality" time.
Sunday afternoon, we flew down to Puerto Jiménez from San José (a one hour flight) and were picked up by El Remanso's driver and taken directly to the lodge where a tasty lunch of spaghetti a la carbonara was awaiting us despite the fact that it was two p.m. El Remanso's food is uniformly good, healthy and abundant and the staff is accommodating about working around your activities. Speaking of the staff - everyone at El Remanso is extraordinarily friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. It's often said that Ticos are the nicest people in the world and it's certainly evident here.
We rapidly fell into a routine at El Remanso. Mornings were devoted to an early cup of coffee, a little yoga on the wooden deck at the edge of the jungle, then some strenuous activity. The first day, Chris did the early zip-line tour that takes you to a platform in the jungle where you can observe the world awakening. The most unusual thing he saw that morning was a rare, mangrove cuckoo. Gerardo, El Remanso's excellent guide, was very excited. I don't do zip-lines so I watched the jungle awaken from the yoga deck where I saw a multitude of parrots and Chestnut-mandible toucans and listened to the many trills and whistles signifying daybreak.
After our dawn adventures and our substantial breakfasts, we did the "River Hike" (submersible sandals are a must at El Remanso) to the fresh-water lagoon on the beach where we floated on our backs in the cool water gazing upwards through the palm fronds into the fluffy white clouds drifting across a perfect blue sky. Sheer bliss.
The climb back up the Beach Trail to the Lodge is STEEP so a shower and a period of sitting on the deck enjoying the distant ocean view and the closer view of deep, green forest was necessary before lunch . A siesta, swim and massage (one of the best I've ever had - ask for Laura) were about all we could manage in the afternoon. We were, however, reinvigorated enough to take the night tour of the jungle before dinner. There's something wonderful and mysterious and incredibly DARK about walking down narrow jungle trails at night. This is the time you might see pumas or other cats, but we just heard loud crashing that Gerardo attributed to peccaries. We did, however, see spiders and scorpions and snakes - Oh my! The highlight of the walk was a glimpse of the very rare Glass frog, a tiny frog so transparent you can actually see its organs within.
The next two days were similar to the first: active mornings, lazy afternoons and candlelit dinners on the Lodge deck. Although there were plenty of off-site tours we could have taken (e.g. to Corcovado National Park or kayaking and dolphin watching on the Gulfo Dulce), except for one morning when Chris went birding down the road a bit, we never left the grounds of El Remanso. There really is something for everyone right here at this resort - from waterfall rappelling to luxuriating under Laura's expert ministrations in her little massage cabina in the forest. This is a great destination for a honeymoon, a family vacation, a bird-watching trip, or pretty much whatever kind of natural Costa Rican experience you're seeking.
Encanta la Vida is the other side of Matapalo, down by the beach, populated by dedicated Matapalo surfers, a world away from the stately eco-lodges up in the hills. Guys who want to be called by their Costa Rica nicknames hang around the bar in the afternoon, swapping stories and searching the cooler for the "Alaska" beers - the ones with the most ice on them. The beach is a few minutes away, but there's a big swimming pool, big enough to swim actual laps. Meals are announced by the sound of a conch shell, and are served cafeteria-style. Dinner is robust: you're expected to be hungry.
Playa Mapapalo is the last of the beaches that face the Golfo Dulce, before the massive cliffs of Cabo Matapalo and the coastline's sharp turn to the north. On the other side of the cape, the beach faces straight west into the Pacific. Surfers looking for point breaks and complicated waves come here. One tells us, with a grin, to advertise the abundance of sharks and sea snakes.
Rooms at Encanta la Vida are rustic but comfortable, with decks or porches and plenty of windows to let in the breeze. Rooms have low-voltage fans and lights, but no other power unless the main generator is running. Wifi is available at the rancho.
Reviewed March 25, 2009
Don't ask for driving directions to Playa Nicuesa - there aren't any. Unless you're planning to walk across the Piedras Blancas National Park, the only way to get here is by boat. "Here are the kayaks - take one out whenever you want" says Mike as we walk in from the pier. Playa Nicuesa Lodge is about jungle and water, and is deeply embedded in both. You come here to experience Nature, without distractions.
Playa Nicuesa feels wilder than most other lodges. The collared peccaries that suddenly surrounded us on our afternoon walk, for example, were evidently less used to humans than previous ones we've encountered; they barked and stamped and audibly clacked their teeth at us. We stood still and watched until they wandered off into the forest. Back at the lodge, an afternoon downpour was followed by a chorus of frogs. Night was absolutely dark but full of sound. We kayaked in the morning to a nearby beach for a swim; we could see 3 or 4 meters into the water even on a cloudy day.
Playa Nicuesa Lodge offers one- and two-bedroom cabins in the jungle, as well as four rooms with private baths. Guests gather for meals, books or company in a spacious, two-story open-air rancho with a well-stocked bar. Guides are available for any activity you might like to pursue.
Reviewed March 28, 2009