Jane62

Hi - thanks for the advice so far. We leave for CR a week from tomorrow! We will be there 8 nights and 9 days from April 5 and leaving the morning of April 13 I have a few questions:

1. I know it's the dry season but we will be spending a night at Sirena in Corcovado - should we bring light rainjackets? or will we really not need them?

2. I have read April is the hottest month - so am packing shorts, sleeveless tops and a couple pairs lightweight long pants for any hiking that requires them as well as a couple of lightweight long-sleeved tops. Do we need sweaters or sweatshirts for evening or will it be too hot even then for that?

3. At Bosque del Cabo, do we need anything dressier than shorts or lightweight khaki pants for meal times?

4. I read a trip report from a few years back indicating dinner at Bosque felt like it was served late to some people and someone mentioned it being served 2 hours' after dark - how late is dinner really served there? Maybe it is served earlier now?

Thanks in advance!

volcanogirl

Bosque del Cabo is very casual. You can really wear whatever you want. Some people changed into capris or casual skirts for dinner, but shorts would be absolutely okay. We never needed a jacket when we were on the Osa. It's pretty hot and humid. Since you can't use a blow dryer there, I don't think my hair ever got dry for our entire trip. BdC can tell you what time dinner is served; they're pretty responsive to e-mails. Most people meet in the bar area to hang out before it's served.

RAC

Bosque del cabo serves dinner around 7:00 IIRC. There's a happy hour before that.

I would plan to hike in long pants and sleep within a mosquito net (I.e, pack one) at Sirena.

Jane62

Thanks Volcanogirl and RAC. I checked Bosque's website and they say dinner at 7 - sounds like maybe it used to be later.

RAC, We are bringing 2 mosquito nets as our guide (Nito) is supposed to have 2 also - so hopefully we'll have enough for the 4 of us - sleeping out on the platform there as we heard it's less hot than inside the dorm rooms. Forecast looks like 90s in Puerto Jimenez and Drake Bay - yikes! Maybe it's a little cooler up at Bosque with the breezes? Didn't realize when we planned the trip that April is the hottest month! Oh well, we'll love it anyway!

volcanogirl

Maybe dinner time seemed late to them because it gets dark early there? If I remember correctly, I don't think they do daylight savings time. You can get a little breeze at BdC. We had a travel alarm clock with a built in thermometer, and it never got below the 80s in our cabin even during the night. They give you a small electric fan though so that helps move the air around.

RAC

I hear that the platform is cooler, but I saw some people who got chewed up really, really bad while sleeping out there. I don't think they had mosquito nets, but pretty much every square centimeter that had been exposed had a red welt on it.

We slept in mosquito nets in the bunks and didn't get a single bite in our two-night stay.

Jane62

Yikes RAC - that sounds bad! I am one that mosquitoes love too - I will load up on the Deet and have the kids do so as well but as I say, we have the brand new mosquito nets so between that and the Deet hopefully we'll be ok!

Yes Volcanogirl I was thinking that too - someone said something in a report about dinner being really late and it was at 2 hours' past dark - can't remember what time of year they were there - I just checked the current time there and it is an hour later than here, I'm in California. Sunset there is at about 5:45 pm right now (just looked that up too) so 7 pm dinner sounds reasonable to me! Fan is good. I also have a tiny portable battery-powered fan I got to use in Africa - came in handy at one camp where there were no fans at all - put it next to the bed and it cooled me enough to sleep!

RAC

It's not only the mosquitos, but also the no-see-ums/sand flies. They like to hang around by the steps where everyone takes off their boots (tuck your pants into your socks and don't take your socks off until you get inside the shelter).

volcanogirl

Jane, ooh, where did you get the portable fan? I might have to look into getting one of those.

Jane62

This is the fan, Volcanogirl http://www.travelsmith.com/ProductSearch2#w=fan - the nice thing about it is you can fold the bottom part so it can stand upright on your nightstand! Really good purchase.

volcanogirl

Thanks, Jane - I think I'm going to get one. There are a lot of times when I wish I had had one of these! Price is good too.

Jane62

Oh and RAC, you are making me nervous! But thanks for the tip

volcanogirl

They sound a bit like sharks waiting for their prey!

RAC

Better nervous and prepared than itchy and regretful!

Jane62

ha ha, true! Oh by the way, volcanogirl, I just checked and Amazon also has that fan and for even less!

Jane62

By the way RAC were you there in rainy or dry season? (Hoping you'll say rainy and that they won't be as bad in dry!)

volcanogirl

Good point, RAC. I always pack After Bite, but I don't think even that would help in that situation. Thanks, Jane!

RAC

Was dry season. We didn't get bit once. Even when going for a swim in the river. Long sleeves, long pants, mosquito nets.

Cattail

7 p.m. felt a lot later to me in Costa Rica than it does in the states, probably because we got up with the howlers every morning, and most days were very active. Plus the heat makes SOME of us rather languid (and sometimes a bit silly after happy hour!)

volcanogirl

That's a good point, Cat. It's hard to sleep much past 5:30 a.m. in CR with all the bird and howler racket. And at night, if we ever stayed up until 9:00 p.m. we felt like we had really accomplished something!