Bosque del Cabo - Casa Blanca
 

A very disturbing review of Casa Blanca at Bosque del Cabo posted on tripadvisor.com. I have emailed it to the owners as we are to be there in August for our third stay in it. I noticed in 2006 (our second stay there) that it looked like maintenace needed to be done as it was not in as good of shape as when we stayed in it the time before. I know keeping things in the rain forest is a constant battle but... Has anyone else stayed in Casa Blanca recently? We will be there the first week of August and are taking good friends with us that are staying in Casa Blance with us and am worried.

Fae - I read the review this morning as well and I agree, it was disturbing. We're leaving in a few hours and will be staying in Casa Blanca June 26-30. After giving this much thought, I feel that wildlife, bugs etc... cannot be controlled completely in the middle of the jungle. The poster seemed a little unrealistic. Spraying their pillows to kill the cockroaches and then turning them over and going to bed? hmmm... not sure that was the brightest move. They brought their own food is sounds like (I noticed crackers sitting on the counter in a picture). Food attracts... Driving down there? I know people do it, but two kids and an elderly grandma? Yikes, that's asking for it! Three hours in the car with my kids and I'm about to have a breakdown. Okay so you get my point. I think we may need to take this post with a grain of salt and make our own judgement. I will make sure to write about our experience and inspect the toliet seats for bubbles! The way BDC works, I'm almost sure they will be replaced by the time we get there.

hopvac, I had the same reaction as you did. Of course none of know the real experiences of the poster but some things came to mind: The photos show a couple with open food packages about. I would never ever do this down there, you're really asking for it. Case in point....when I was there last I was throwing stuff in the laundry bag and tossed a lifesaver I'd had in my shorts (that was in it's own little plastic package) on the coffee table & went to breakfast. After coming back there was a loooong conga line of sugar ants leading from the deck up onto the table devouring that one little piece of candy - thru the plastic! And I know better!

I can't imagine that roaches were in everyone's bags even 2 days later but that's just me....if there was food or anything that would attract bugs that was left open, well the bugs will find it - these are just the normal precautions you have to take there.

All of the houses and cabinas are not hermetically sealed and I would hope no one expects that when there; even so I've still had very rare run-ins with bugs. In Tucan, out sliding doors on one side met at the top but due to humidity was warped slightly and there was about a 1 inch gap near the bottom. Now, maybe it was overkill, but when I went to bed at night I would just grab a tie from the netting and bound the handles together - problem solved!

I can't imagine the situation being to the point that sleeping in the car would be preferable unless maybe the whole wildlife right at your door experience was a little too much to begin with. And I certainly wouldn't expect to get a break for leaving 5 days early - thats basically lost revenue for the owners when they could've rented it to someone else.

fae when I was there a month ago there was a family up there for a week and they never voiced any issues. There was also a poster who stayed there not too long ago....aqualime I think? Maybe she will see this and respond. Maybe I'm just so used to staying down there and know the constant wear & tear those cabinas & houses go thru but the pics don't really concern me, I don't see anything I wouldn't expect or that really freaks me out. I'm sure BdC will address your concerns.

hopvac you're probably gone by now but have fun and report back! :)

fae, have been back just 2 weeks from a week at CB. I have the g'kids today, will post tonight.We loved it!! 2nd time there even better! Toni

I hope Phil and Kim will go on tripadvisor and post a response. We found the level of cleanliness and attention to detail at BdC to be very impressive when we were there last summer. We had muddy shoes that we tracked all over the porch, and when we would come back from hiking each day, the housekeeping staff would have made things immaculate. The roach thing really surprises me - we didn't see a single roach in our cabina the entire time we were there, but we also didn't keep unsealed food in our cabina. fae, I'm glad you've e-mailed them so they're aware of it. I hope everything works out well for you guys.

It is possible that food crumbs and oil or sugar residues contributed to the cockroach explosion. Or the bugs might even have arrived in the travelers' vehicle or suitcases. However, the photos in the review are quite damning.

I find the review/photos very suspect on TA, the reviewer has never contributed before and only has one "pin" on the map (even though the member joined in 2005). Plus she recommended a place in MA with a web-site in the review, so I would take this review very tongue in cheek.

Anyway, as the rest of the reviews are positive, I would keep those in mind.

BDC is one of the cleanest most beautiful places we stayed, in a cabina, but we met people staying in the houses and they were also quite pleased.

Plus, I think those "cockroaches" might have been cicadas, which there were a few of when we were there...they're harmless but annoying :)

Not to discount that poster's particular feelings, but I got a sense from her original posts that "rustic luxury" might not be exactly what she was looking for.

In any event, there are also some recent (this year) rave reviews of Casa Blanca so combined with my experiences at BDC I'd go with the positive. ;)

The complaining poster on Tripadvisor was jilkovina, someone who sought a great deal of advice from members of this group for the planning of her trip. She was, in fact, advised by people here to book Casa Blanca rather than another place she had found on her own. Search on her name here and follow the development of the trip.

I have no reason to believe that the photos show anything but the truth and would rather wait for further information before shooting the messenger. She was dissapointed, and the photos show why, even if you ignore the bug matter.

Kinkazote, formerly Davy1961

I remember some of her postings; they sounded pretty adventurous because they wanted to drive down to the Osa. I'm sorry she was disappointed.

Hi all! I was there in February and enjoyed Casa Blanca but was a bit surprised by how rustic and dark it was inside. I think some updating would go along way towards making it a really great place to stay. I didn't want to spend any time in the kitchen or living room. That being said, the deck makes the place. It is huge with tons of seating, 2 hamocks and a fabulous view. The house is very open and we did have a large lizard/iguana living in the door frame, a mouse in a shutter and saw several small insects. Nothing that would prompt me to sleep in a car, but we didn't have one anyways. We were a family of four and it was nice having a seperate bedroom and bathroom for the kids which factored into us chosing Casa Blanca over a cabina with loft.
I think everyone just has a different comfort zone. Many of my friends wouldn't last a night there!
They like a more luxurious setup, we like being close to nature. I think the family that gave the negative review had seven people staying there; imo that would not be comfortable. Forums like this are great because you can get alot of differant opinions of the same place and come away with a pretty good overall picture that helps manage your expectations.

Hi fae, We were actually leaving when jilkovina arrived. Our luggage was still at the house. I assume at that time the house could not have been ready/cleaned. We had just gone up for lunch, so it would have been around 12-30 or 1 PM when they arrived. I knew someone was checking in the day we left but I could not remember who it was. Frank AKA Pato had us in the R.Rover and stopped to get our luggage. I hopped out and started babbling to them about every thing we had seen, just from the house. Her hubby says are you on the board and I say yes, Fodors! Jilkovina comes over and laughingly says that board is like my bible! We laughed and in a split second we are gone.

The house....our second time there. New patio furniture, new living room furniture. Beds were great.
Toilet seats? Yeah, paint peeling, and very nicked. But clean. Toilet bowl as in one of the pics, the stained bowl, I assumed it was just iron deposits or something like that, just stained. Again clean.

Critters inside... 2 scorpions. Night one and night two. One big, one medium. Killed them both. Roaches, we had one or two in the bedroom, once one was on the bed, but we always do a critter check every night. We assumed the house had been empty for a few nights hence the scorpions.
Our daughter and son in law had the room off of the deck. They did have some roaches in their clothes when they were packing to leave.

We had the meal package and never had food in the house.Not even snacks. I had brought coffee mugs for the early coffee at the lodge so we could bring it back and have it on the deck. I had lots of sweetener pkgs and tea bags in a sandwich baggie, never had an ant or roach on it or in it.

I feel so bad for jilkovina, we are many years (25 yrs plus) travelers to tropical Mexico...so we are well seasoned when it comes to food out, bugs, bats scorpions etc. Critter checks are part of our daily routine.Truly we did not give a thought about the toilet seat or bowl. it registered , but never thought about it at all.
Lighting poor, but most places in MX aren't very bright either.
We were only in the bedrooms to sleep. rest of the time on that great deck or hiking the trails.

Oh, we had no leakage at all in the showers, either one.

Fae email me and i will email you some pics. [email protected]
I will try and get my BdC report out soon, it was fantastic. In fact if just the two of go, I really wuld prefer casa B just b/c you se so much there! Toni

One thing I've learned to do in CR - keep my luggage zipped at all times - helps to keep the critters out. When we were waiting at the Sansa "airport" in Puerto Jimenez, the couple next to me unzipped their luggage and a scorpion popped out. Made me glad I had kept things sealed up tightly!

parrmt: What activities did you do while at Bosque del Cabo this your 2nd time there?

fae, yes second time and it was even better. I will get the report out this weekend . Still deleting photos. We did the Animal Sanctuary and the river trip/Golfo Dulce boat trip the same day. It was great. and we hiked all of the trails except Zapotero (just did not get to it) Philip was in Nicaragua for the week so the night hikes etc were not available. We thought we would do another birding hike but we saw so much on our own we felt it was not necessary this time. The wildlife sightings were better this trip than before and that trip was hard to beat! Toni