ShellD

cmerrell - we tried to keep a good sense of humor in the rain. It really is hard sometimes though - especially when you've paid so much to go on a tour and it's basically a washout. For me, that's in the back of my mind the whole time! But, you gotta make the best of it right? I think when you go to a country like Costa Rica in July, it's got to be expected and we did our best!

tully - no wily coatis named Jack! I was looking though! We did a good job keeping our snacks closed tight up which I think really kept them away!

ShellD

Day 8, Wednesday, July 28th

Today would be a big day! Last time we were at Bosque we just walked a few trails and relaxed at the pool, but that was it. This time I wanted to do as much as possible, to see it all and to explore with the kids! Especially with my vidoe game, computer addicted son! He loves the outdoors, but it's so hard to get him out there at home! My parents love birds and we decided to get up early and do the morning bird hike with Carlos. It was pretty good. We did see quite a few birds, mainly through his spotting scope. He's so very excited about everything he points out! It was just the four of us on the hike so that made it very nice. It's a very easy stroll along the driveway and grounds around the cabinas and restaurant area, just looking for birds.

Alex wanted to do the tree climb, so after breakfast Mr Shell, Alex and I went out on that, again with Carlos, another couple and a man who we had met the night before. It was quite a hike to get to the tree he'd be climbing. It's not a trail on their map, but it's off the Creek Trail. Carlos warned us to bring hiking sticks and not to worry if we fell - it happens. Well, I didn't fall, but it was very muddy and very steep in parts. Also we were right on the edge overlooking the Pacific for much of the hike, so nice view! But I'm so glad my parents didn't come along for the hike to watch Alex do the climb. Not only would the hike have been difficult, but my mom would have worried the entire time that someone would fall off the side! I asked Carlos if going back we'd have to climb back up the very steep, muddy path we were going down, or was there some other way back? He said, no - this was the way back, but that it's much easier to not slip going up hill in the mud! Ok - um, thanks! So, we got to this amazing Strangler Fig Tree. These trees grow around a regular tree and over many, many years they prevent the light and nutrients from getting to the original tree and the original tree decomposes leaving a hollowed out inside where the Strangler Fig has grown. So this huge tree is there and the entire tree is essentially hollow! We all climb into the tree and the 4 people climbing, plus Carlos gear up into the gear you wear when you do rock climbing. Carlos went up the tree first to get settled. One by one they climbed up the inside of the tree using the roots and limbs as footings and then when they got to the top they climbed out of the top of the tree and sort of rapelled down the outside. So very cool! Alex loved it! What a unique experience to have! We hiked back to Miramar and hung out at the pool for awhile and then had some lunch at the restaurant. Our group was going to hike to the beach while my parents walked, but it was getting later and starting to cloud up, so we all got a ride down to the Pan Dulce beach. I'm thinking this is the name - the one with the "white gate". Again - last trip we didn't make it there. We brought some boogie boards down and spent quite a few hours in the water. The water was great. It was like having our own private beach. We met a boy there who was 10 years old. He was surfing and his family had moved to the area from Florida. He hung out with us for awhile. He seemed glad to have the company! After some time in the water we walked along the beach checking out the hermit crabs and shells. There were quite a few monkeys in the trees in the distance. The tide was coming in pretty quickly though and our ride wasn't due for more than an hour - but luckily he showed up about 45 minutes early. We were glad - we were definitely ready to head back.

After some more relaxing in our pool at Miramar we went down to the restaurant area where my parents listened to the talk about the wild cats in the area. They really enjoyed that. The kids, Mr Shell and I took the Sunset tour. We passed on the cat lecture because it's rained every night and it was clear tonight. We didn't want to miss the night tour so this may have been our only chance! We saw a lot of frogs, snakes, lizards and really learned quite a bit. After dinner we went back to our Casa and played some poker with pretzels for chips. I'm thinking I could live here forever

ShellD

I'm working on getting my pictures sorted out and hopefully will have some type of link soon too! But the trip report continues - if only the real world wasn't getting in the way of getting to all this trip stuff!

Day 9, Thursday, July 29th

Today we got to sleep in just a little bit. Although that's always a little bit difficult with all the jungle noises! Also, I'm always up a bit early beacuase I can't wait to get started on the day's adventures and it's so darn hot! Today is our last full day at Bosque. I want to take advantage of all that we can! We're going horseback riding this morning. My mom is pretty aprehensive. She's been on a horse before, but it's been many years! At times I'm not sure she's enjoying this part of our trip as much as I thought she would. It may be a bit too adventurous for her at this point. My dad on the other hand is loving every minute of it! I think he wishes he could be out there more and doing more, but his knee is not in the best shape and his back is also bad at times. But he's keeping up with us and he's up for anything we throw at him!

So off we went to meet Miguel. When we pulled up to his horse ranch my mom almost backed out. But she hung in there and we all saddled up. Alex's horse seemed to have a mind of it's own though! As we all headed for the creek, his horse turned right around and headed back towards the ranch. He just didn't want to go. Finally Miguel came back and coaxed him out and we all went along. We started by walking through a creek. The water was nice and cool. I enjoyed it, but the bottom was all rocky and it did seem as though the horses didn't. They all would walk as close to the land as possible and if they could get out of the water and onto dry land they did. My mom's horse flat out stopped several times and just wouldn't go into the water. It just seemed that they weren't comfortable there. Then we went into the jungle. It was a very muddy trail. Sometimes the mud was at least six inches up the horses legs. But the horses seemed much more comfortable walking here. This didn't seem to slow them down. But here my mom just hated - she felt like the horses would stumble on the inclines or slip in the mud. She hated that they were walking in such deep mud. I had to keep telling her to just relax and trust her horse, it would all be ok. I felt bad that she wasn't enjoying it because it really was a nice ride. But then, we rode out onto a beautiful deserted beach. You could tell the horses just loved it! Their pace picked up, their heads lifted up and the view was just amazing! The sand probably felt good on their feet compared to the rocks! We rode along the beach for about 30 minutes or so and then stopped for a rest and we climbed on the rocks, and just checked out the beautiful view here. We looked for the little crabs and checked out the tide pools. It was so peaceful! Just us here! At one point Megan had mentioned that she wanted to try coconut milk and before we got back onto the horses, Miguel found a coconut and cracked it opened and we got to try the coconut juice and taste the coconut. She was loving this! We got back on the horses and rode back. My mom was a bit more confident and did enjoy the ride on the beach. Her horse was very slow, or she was holding him back...I'm not sure which! The rest of us really loved the experience. The beach part made it a perfect ride!

We got back to Bosque del Cabo and had a great lunch and made plans for the afternoon.

hipvirgochick

Miguel's awesome. I wonder if your mom had Tranquilo, what it white?

Just thought I'd pop in to let you know yesterday a Puma was spotted at BDC by several staff with TWO CUBS! Sweet!

ShellD

No way!!!! Hip - I have to tell you when we went down for dinner our second night, Phillip says to me sort of quietly - "um do you know....Hip, shillmac, tully" only he used your real names... and I looked at him sort of surprised and smiled and wondered how the heck he could have put together that I would know who you all were! But I said, sure! We "know" eachother from fodors - and he says "anywhere else?" I said maybe fb - and he says - "ahhh...your name came up somewhere on the internet as being here so I knew you had to know them!" What a SMALL connected world! Then he asked if I knew about your contest - which I figured was to find a Puma - and I told him I wasn't going to get up before the sun and go out looking, but if I saw one I would be thrilled! He started telling me all these puma spotting stories!

Anyway, I think he thought it was pretty amazing how so many people here "know" eachother and help eachother out without really knowing eachother!

So - where did they spot the puma?

My mom's horse wasn't white, he was a golden brown, but he seemed older than the other horses. I forget his name, my mom right remember it. And yes, Miguel was very awesome!

ShellD

Day 9 continued

After lunch, my parents wanted to relax a bit. My dad wanted to check out the Garden area and I suggested they check out the Creek Trail, and head over the suspension bridge - check the property out a bit! However, we'd later find out when my mom got to the suspension bridge she just said - enough. She'd had enough hiking, walking, adventure. They want back to Miramar and sat on the deck and relaxed.

Mr Shell, the kids and I decided we'd tackle the Pacific Trail. We didn't have enough time to make it to the waterfall and back before the tide came in, but it still would be a great hike down to the beach! The kids loved the tide pools and walking on the beach. But about halfway down the steps on the trail, Megan turned around and looked at me and in a slightly scared look asked if we'd have to come up this same way? Or if they could pick us up, like they did from the other beach? Um, sorry Meg - we have to walk up all 500 or so steps! I thought she'd start to cry right then and there! But we had a blast exploring the pools and climbing on the rocks and just checking everything out. But it did seem that the beach was fading fast, even though we supposedly had quite some time until the tide came in, but we decided to head back. As we were sitting on the bottom of the trail, cleaning all the little stones out of our shoes in the little stream, Alex said he was heading back and off he went - He must have ran back up that trail! To be an 11 year old and have all the energy in the world! I asked Mr Shell to stay with Megan and me. All I could remember from our trip 3 years ago was feeling like I'd need an airlift to make it back up! But that trip we'd hiked a lot further down the beach and it was much hotter. I'm certainly not in the best physical shape to tackle this trail! But I was there for the adventure - so Megan and I came up with a plan, 50 steps, water and rest, 50 more, water and rest, all the way to the top. We're such wimps! But we made it! What a feeling of accomplishment! When we got to the top Megan started to cry saying she couldn't walk one more step and wanted to get a ride back to Miramar. I tried to convince her that to walk back to the restaurant and ask for a ride would take just as long as just walking back to the casa. Mr Shell had no more patience and he took off up the hill of the drive back to Miramar....I pushed Megan along and we were rewarded by our first and actually only sighting of the White Faced monkeys! Suddenly they were all overhead in the trees of the driveway! About 10 of them! We got some great photo shots and also got to rest a bit! And it really calmed Megan down too! Some Spider monkeys also showed up!

When we finally made it back, Alex was already swimming - he probably was back for about 45 minutes! We all relaxed in the pool for a bit. But this was our last day and I still wanted to hit the Titi trail. I'd never been on that trail, and it was so close to Miramar! Who would be up for that one? I convinced Alex to go with me. It was great to see him so adventurous and so away from the electronics on this trip! He loved the jungle! So, at about 4:00 we hit the road for the trail. I joked to my mom to send out the rescue team if we weren't back by dark - she didn't think that was funny. The two of us had a great walk. It was so nice for just the two of us to spend time together. We saw a ton of leaf cutter ants and some squirrel monkeys, but that was about it. But it was a great trail and just the right length. I'd like to head back to that one!

So, after another great dinner, we started packing up to leave in the morning. I was gathering up all of our damp clothes, that just never seem to dry at Bosque and I picked up a pair of shorts off the night table near Megans bed and underneath was a scorpion. Well, I knew Mr Shell and Alex would think it was cool and she would hate it. Of course I wanted to get a picture and not let her know. She found out. It was tiny but none the less, who wants a scorpion 2 feet from your bed an hour before you go to bed! She was hysterical! She flipped out thinking where there was one there would be more and that she was going to die. It took awhile, but while I was packing she finally calmed down. Then as Alex was falling asleep, he noticed a big spider with eggs at the top of the mosquito netting over his bed. He didn't get upset, but it caused a bit of a rough time falling asleep. It was a long last night at Bosque! The bugs were getting to them!

Day 10, Friday July 30th

We leave Bosque toay. I'm sad to be leaving. I love it here. I could live here. Of course - I get waited on, but still. It's beautiful. Even with the bugs, the dirt and the extreme humidity. I'm not sure anyone else in my family feels this way, maybe my dad. But they don't feel that Costa Rica magic that I do. My thoughs on Bosque this trip - it's different from when we were here 3 years ago. Maybe because we were up the driveway and not right on the main property. I'm not sure. But we didn't see nearly as much wildlife this time. We actually saw more in Arenal at the Observatory Lodge this trip. Three years ago there were monkeys everywhere. We were in Lapa and I remember sitting on our deck and having howlers, spiders and white faced monkeys in the trees around us all at the same time. Seeing howler monkeys on hikes etc. This time we did hear the howler monkeys, but never saw them. We only saw the white faced the one time and we did see the spider monkey's a few times. We had one quick squirrel monkey sighting on the titi trail. We did see so many toucans though! And of course the macaws flying by over and over! But that being said, I don't think there is any other place like BDC. The staff is incredibly accomodating. They go so out of their way to get to know the guests adn be so helpful. The food is excellent, especially considering how remote it is! My kids were so hesitant to go there - they had no idea what to expect and they were so won over! That says alot!

Next up....our last day and night at Xandari! And hopefully some pictures!

hipvirgochick

Shell -- I better wind my report up soon now too! Y'all are making me look bad. ;-) The puma and cubs were spotted right off the drive by a bunch of staff. I'm glad staff got to see them because they work so hard there! If you FB BDC you will get those kinds of updates on your page.

Those stairs back from the Pacific trail can be daunting. I won't say too much more about BDC since I haven't posted about our time there yet, but I'm sure the wildlife does ebb and flow and I'm not sure if I'd be disappointed or not if there was less during one of our trips. I will say that 4 nights was just not long enough there this year! I know what you mean though, staying at Casa M is different than in the cabinas on the main grounds, but not in a bad way, just different.

hipvirgochick

P.S. shillmac and hubby, tully and I already have Casa M booked for a week next year. WOOT! LOL

tully

That is funny Shell about Philip. We talked about it once, "knowing" people on fodors & meeting up at Bosque. I agree with hip on the ebb and flow, and timing. I know I've walked a trail and seen little and someone right after me mentions how many monkeys they saw. Glad your kids got into it (for the most part!), I admit I broke into tears too at the top of the Pacific trail ;-) Actually we all booked it to miramar and jumped fully clothed into the pool. Looking forward to the Xandari part.

cmerrell

I'd love to see your photos, Shell. Sounds like such a nice trip. I'm glad your kids enjoyed BdC for the most-part. I'm sure I would have freaked out over a scorpion as a child too. Now, I think they're cool (as long as I can easily extract them from my cabin ;-) ). And you never can tell where the wildlife will show up. I only saw one howler and 0 squirrel monkeys last year at BdC. But as a consolation, I got my best photos to-date of some spider monkeys, and saw tons of capuchins. Luck of the draw, I guess. It only makes me want to go back to try my luck again!

A mother puma and babies, hip!! Wow, I need to get back down there! They can't elude us forever...

javafan1

Probably best you saw the scorpion in your room the last night. We stayed in Casa Blanca for 5 nights recently, but we had a scorpion in our room the first night and I wouldn't call this one small. I think it put our kids (and myself) on edge and it took a couple of nights to relax at night. Still, BdC was awesome and the whole family is still talks about the whole experience.

Jaguarman

ShellD, great trip report.

Don't forget that the monkeys travel across the Osa in search of food. Perhaps the first time you visited there was more fruit and food in season near BDC than on this trip. I've seen places full of animals one month, and then noticed that they have moved on in search of ripe fruit/food the next.

Pura Vida,
Ballard Diaz,
Jungle Guide - Osa, Corcovado and So. Costa Rica

ShellD

Finally getting back to this!

Day 10 Continued, Friday, July 30th

We left Bosque after breakfast and had an 9 something am flight on Sansa. Since our last visit about three years ago, they've updated the terminal in Puerto Jimenez. Last time we just waited by the runway and they weighed our luggage right outside on what seemed like a produce scale from the grocery store! Now we actually went inside and had a real check in with a real weigh in! We took off on time and had a smooth flight. We were met by our driver from Xandari. Smooth roads again! What a treat! We pulled into the driveway and wow - Xandari was beautiful! We have an Ultra Plus Villa and my parents have the Palm Villa. We checked in and my parents were given their orientation and we were driven to our villa since it was a bit farther away from reception. It's huge and what a great view! We got our bathing suits on and walked back up to the restaurant for lunch.

During a very, very long lunch it started to rain. The food was very good. Since we didn't have anything else to do, and it wasn't thundering, the four of us decided to pick one of the pools with a hot tub and brave the rain and go anyway. My parents went back to their villa to relax. Xandari has three pools. The kids, Mr Shell and I spent a good two or three hours in the pool and hot tub in the rain. We had a great afternoon! It was our last day and we were determined to not spend it sitting in our room. The jacuzzi felt great - it was HOT! And the pool was warm in the rain. After a few hours we went back to the villa. The kids each decided to take advantage of the big tub we had - they felt this was real luxury after the roughing it feel of Bosque del Cabo. We played cards for awile and then went up to the restaurant for dinner.

We all really enjoyed the food at Xandari. I wasn't sure that they'd have something for the kids, especially Alex, my picky son! But he found the food to be really good. And we thought for the portion size and the quality of the food it was priced really well! I wished we had more time to spend here. It was a very relaxing environment. It would have been nice to get a spa treatment!

Day 11, Saturday, August 31st

We leave today - but we decided to leave our mark in Costa Rica! Xandari has a Green Program. Apparently the grounds where the hotel was built had no or very little trees on it when they built the hotel (I may not have this exactly right at this point - it's been a month since I read it!) But they have tried to restore the natural tree growth to what it should be in that area. So, they have a program where you can help to plant trees in the area and we decided to do so. Both my parents and the 4 of us planted a tree (2 trees) and they leave a marker with your name on it. So, Saturday morning we went out - again in the rain and their guide went with us and took pictures - which he was supposed to email and didn't - but we dug two holes and planted two different types of trees on their grounds. It was a really cool thing. The kids also really liked it. Now if we ever get back to Xandari we can see how big our trees get!

After our tree planting, Megan wanted to buy some artwork from the gift shop at Xandari. And then we left for the airport. The airport was packed. It took nearly the entire two hours we were there to just get through the line to check our luggage. But we made it through, got on the plane only to be told that there was a problem with one of the engines....not exactly what you want to hear! But it turned out to only be a problem with the switch that turns the engine on. So after a short delay, they fixed the switch and we were on our way home.

We had an amazing vacation. It was great to share it with my parents. And as I'm sure most of us here do, I'm already thinking about our next trip!