any feedback on La Carolina Lodge in Bisaguas?
 

Greetings all!

La Carolina is reuted to be a rustic working cattle ranch off the beaten path. We are planning on spending three or four days there riding horses, swimming, hiking, etc. Has anyone been here? How about the Las Pumas Wildcat Refuge which is nearby? Any input is appreciated. My email contact has been with a guy who says he is the only English-speaking perosn on site. That is EXACTLY what we are looking for since a HUGE part of our motivation for this trip this summer is to work on the kids' spanish. Cool!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. God Bless!

Julie, the tica traveler

Just looked at this website. We, too, like to travel off the beaten path in Costa Rica. This looks lovely. I say "go for it"! Looks like a great place for your kids to practice their Espanol. There is another place south and west of San Jose called La Finca Que Ama that we liked as well. Same reasons. It is in between Puriscal and San Pable de Turrubares. We will be returning in June, and La Carolina is a place we would like to try! This is an area we have not been to. I'd like to hear how you like it. When are you going?

Oops! I meant to say San Pablo de Turrabares!

Shillmac, I would love to hear about any places you have stayed off the beaten path. You have mentioned several times that you do like that type of travel. We obviously, from our reports, much prefer off the radar types of places too particularly Tico run/owned. Tica Traveler has given some good ideas for our future travels as it has become harder and harder to find places that are not overrun by tourists. Anything you can add would be appreciated. Even the Osa has become more touristy in places than we like.

Not much! So far we've just done some exploring on day trips, but La Finca Que Ama is really the first place we have stayed that has been "far from the maddening crowd". The only other place that was a little out of the way (and we loved it) was Tilajari Resort northeast of La Fortuna. That's why, as I told Tica Traveler, I was interested in checking out La Carolina. In our trips to Costa Rica, we have just concentrated on traveling to different areas, but so much of the time have returned and spent time revisiting places we have enjoyed before--and people we have met. We've never been in the Upala (north central)area, never been down to San Isidro and points south, etc. Only on one out of our 7 visits have we had more than a week, and we can't seem to give up spending a little time at the playa! I guess it's because we are landlocked here at home--we really enjoy the beach. We are SO looking forward to retirement and more travel time!

Thanks Shillmac. Will let you know if I find anything new. My husband and I refused to revisit any place until we had seen it all. Obviously, we have revisited the Osa but always at a different lodge until this year. My two weeks without him are when I return to places I like such as Monteverde and the beaches. I grew up on the east coast and am now landlocked in Ohio and really need my playa time. Orlando has been a tremendous help in us staying at less traveled destinations. Some have worked out and some haven't but they are always an adventure.
Tica Traveler....how wonderful for your kids to be going on such adventuresome trips. I get frustrated sometimes when traveling in CR because there are so many americans or english speaking ticos that I don't get the practice that I need to feel more comfortable.

That is why your plan to live near Turrialba is ideal. More immersive there. I think there is a Spanish school there as well (there are so many) and I've thought more than once that would be a good area in which to study. But I really enjoyed C.P.I. Did I tell you our daughter will be in C. R. for 8 weeks this summer studying? She is hoping to knock out three 3 hour courses of upper division Spanish toward her minor.

How nice for your daughter. So much better to learn and practice with real spanish speaking people. Our son spent 6 months up in Monteverde with 1 month of spanish to refresh him. I enjoyed CPI but as a total beginner it was a little overwhelming. They definitely pushed the verbs without much else so trying to put a sentence together was pretty tough. I have since taken several semesters at the local University.
The area near Turrialba that we are thinking about doesn't have any americans living in it. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Good luck with "no Americanos". . .although we have only been traveling there during the past two and one half years, we have seen changes upward in airline prices, hotels, more it seems every time we go. What I would give to have traveled there several years ago when you and your husband began. I can imagine you have seen a huge difference in just the past 10 years. The Turrialba area is probably one of your best chances to stay clear of expats, however! A beautiful piece of the country down there.

Saludos ! Greetings again Shillmac and Suzie2! Sounds like you two are quite the tico travelers yourselves. I have not been to Costa Rica in many years (since before the ecoturismo boom). I was actually a foreign exchange student in Costa Rica in 1980 and returned "por cuenta mía" (on my own) in 1981 and 1986. It's been a VERY long time. I have never been to ANY of the touristy areas you and others have mentioned. When I lived there, my host family was active in the Scouts and through their connection with that organization, I camped in the wilderness with the Scouts, hiked into Panamá and saw some beaches. I even ate a "boca" before I was ecologically savvy enough to know better. (A "boca" is a turtle egg, eaten as a delicacy. Ugh!)
The kids and I are going June 8. We have rented a farmhouse, complete with horses and mountain bikes (Angel Valley) for a week. This farmhouse is close to the town I lived in as an AFS student. We will then visit friends in Fortuna (near Arenal) on our way to La Carolina near Bisaguas. We will stay a couple days in Tilarán also since we will be in the area about the time they have their "turnos", the town festivals celebrating the patron saint. (Those are a true sight if you've never had the experience. Kinda like a mardi gras without all the sleaze). We will probably skip Monteverde since Valle de Los Angeles has a private reserve (smaller, of course). We will be back in Alajuela by the 21st to meet up with some other travelers. After taking them on a morning tour of Poás, we will head up to Guápiles, spend the night, then head out in the a.m. for Cariari and La Geest to take the tico route to Tortuguero (bus and lancha). After a few days in Tortuguero, we'll take a lancha to Moín, a bus to Limon and another bus or taxi to Cahuita. We're staying three or four days at Chalet Hibiscus there. Is in not "in" town but rather appears to be about fifteen blocks out. Kinda remote. This chalet is the closest thing to a "tourist" hotel we will see, I believe. I'm told it is usually rented out by ticos but since , at that point we will be six in our group, and knowing my Tica family as I do, I imagine we will have a few tag-alongs by that point in our trip, I reserved the "chalet principal" which sleeps ten!
One of our travelers will depart for the U.S. from there. The rest of us will then travel to the Orosí Valley were there is a cool looking place called "Montaña Linda." I don't know if my companions will be interested in taking the classes offered or not. I may put my kids in for a few days. (I am a certified Spanish-English interpreter, so I won't be paying for a class but I certainly WILL be absorbing EVERYTHING I can!)
From there, we had planned to hit Punta Uvita for a few days (snorkeling) but I am not sure at this point. If the Orosí is as beautiful as I think it will be, we may just chill out right there until a couple days before departure. Right before we leave CR , we will go back through Naranjo and visit my AFS family again. We leave CR July 7.
Given we have had to make choices on what to do and what to skip, my kids are already talking about next year and have never set foot in Costa Rica yet! I love it!

What a wonderful trip. I am envious of your time years ago before the tourists discovered CR. I hope the country is what you expect. We went to Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls last fall. My husband had lived in BA as a child but traveled all over Argentina collecting bird specimens for the Smithsonian with his dad, particularly in the Missiones area near Iguazu. Even though we stayed with a dear friend who had been a homestay student in our home 10 years ago (actually stayed with us for almost a year), my husband was horribly disappointed in the changes. I kept warning him of the possiblity because I had been doing a lot of research but it got to him anyway.
Even in the short 12 years that I have been going to CR I have seen an enormous change.