Melissa5

I'm booking Bosque del Cabo for 4 fantastic nights for January 2010! Wooo-hooo! My husband and I are now officially grandparents. We're heading to Costa Rica for peace, nature, and a romantic getaway just for the 2 of us.

WHAT is your favorite deluxe cabina (bungalow) at Bosque del Cabo? And why? I'd love to hear about your highlights and preferences.

Thanks to all of you fodorites who have visited the Osa and have shared your enthusiasm about Bosque del Cabo. I just spent a few months helping with my very first grand-daughter. She has big beautiful curious eyes . Now I'm ready for a vacation!

volcanogirl

We stayed in Tucan and thought it was great - it's one of the bigger, newer cabins and has an outdoor bathtub which was amazing - fun to be in the tub and see monkeys go overhead! It also has a very nice little patio area out front with lounge chairs and a nice view. Mariposa is on the end, so a little more private and also has a tub.

For views, I think Congo and Lapa are hard to beat though.

tully

Congo is my fave for the view & deck, followed 2nd by Lapa. Congo just was re-roofed last week, which is a really cool thing to see how they do it. Then 3rd Tucan, no deck but a small stone patio instead but it has a tub. Mariposa I liked but for whatever reason I didn't click with it like I did the others. But, it's been said before, really any of the cabinas are great, there definitely isn't a bad one to get, plus they can't always guarantee you'll get a specific cabina. Enjoy your trip!

Melissa5

Congo and Lapa are booked. The other deluxe cabinas are still available for my dates. Maybe Mariposa or Tucan sound good? My husband is a biologist and maybe he would like having the cabina closest to the forest.

I enjoy hearing about your favorites. Maybe this will be the first of many trips for us as well! I'm excited.

volcanogirl

Even though Tucan isn't next to the forest, we saw huge amounts of monkeys there - in one afternoon an entire troop of howlers, then capuchins, then spider monkeys swung by. There's a fruit tree next to the cabin that they like. Seems like the howlers were always hanging about in that tree.

Melissa5

volcanogirl: It sounds like a memorable experience having all those different types of monkeys right in your "backyard" of your cabina!

Melissa5

Tully: I'm curious why you liked Toucan better than Mariposa? Was it the deck you enjoyed more, or the cabina do you think?

tully

Tucan and Mariposa are very similiar, in fact years ago when they were completely remodeling Tucan they would come over to Mariposa to measure something as they were basing a good part of it on Mariposa. I had much wildlife at both cabinas, there is really no telling which one will be happening that day/week. The view from Tucan is a little more open than Mariposa, but not a huge difference; and the circular patios are almost identical. Honestly all of them are great, there isn't one I wouldn't want to stay in.

volcanogirl

Melissa, when I was trying to decide, I asked them to e-mail me pictures of the two that interested me. They'll probably kill me for telling you that - lol. Every post I read said, "They're all great" but I didn't really believe it until we went there.

wasigan

We just stayed in Tucan last week and it was beautiful - had stayed in Gecko right next door on our first trip. But Tucan was great, and we had Scarlet Macaws in the almond tree right outside our deck 2 days, and spider and howler monkeys right there as well! It's got a nice deck with a concrete sitting area overlooking the water, plus that great outdoor shower and tub!!

Melissa5

Thanks everyone. I'd like to see more photos. We are excited. I hadn't realized you can actually hear the ocean from the deluxe cabinas...I LOVE hearing the sounds of nature while I'm trying to fall asleep, love the ocean sounds, the sounds of frogs or insect sounds... Does anybody know if both Tucan and Mariposa only hold 2 people? Since we are only 2 people, I'd prefer a cabina that only holds 2...because if they have a larger group of guests come in, I don't want to have to be moved if we are only 2 people and have booked into a cabina that has an upper loft...we obviously don't need the upper loft for only 2 people.

I also have a bee question, but maybe I should e-mail Leonardo. I'm allergic to bee stings...luckily for me I've only been stung once in my entire life but had a very bad reaction. I do carry an allergy kit in case it ever happens again. But...anybody remember if there is a difference as far as which of the deluxe cabinas tend to have bees hanging around? Bees sometimes tend to hang around certain places depending on what is planted there, I think... I'd rather have an outdoor shower area where bees don't tend to hang around. (Obviously there are never any guarantees with bees.) Naturally this is only a problem with stinging bees. (My husband, who is a biologist, tells me some types of bees don't sting.) Unfortunately there isn't any way for me to know in advance if I am only allergic to the sting of some types of bees, and not others.

So far it has worked for me to just be careful not to annoy any bees! Except when I stepped on one when barefoot as a child...everything swelled up, even my face. Haven't been stung since, thank goodness.

volcanogirl

Tucan has a loft, so if you don't want that, then give Tucan a pass. I can't imagine that they would ask you to move from your cabin though. We stayed in it the entire time. Really wouldn't even know the loft was there unless you went up the stairs.

I don't think any one cabin would be more beeish than another. They all have flowers around them. I think most of them have enough openings that a bee could come in, so you might want to sleep with your mosquito netting down.

plumboy

Re: the bee question. When we there in March, we took showers every day with bees, and there seemed to be no avoiding them. But, honestly, they didn't seem particularly aggressive -- just buzzed around the water. Not even sure they were the stinging type. More annoying than anything. Certainly didn't get stung. This was in Congo, but I'm sure no one cabin has the market cornered on bees!

Melissa5

volcanogirl and plumboy: Thanks for "bee-ing" nice about answering my bee questions!

volcanogirl

That must bee very stressful.

shillmac

You'd better bee-lieve it!

Melissa5

Yes I'm nervous about bee-ing in the outdoor shower. I'm hoping those bees are going to bee-have for me! I don't want to blow up like a balloon on vacation if I'm unlucky enough to get stung.

Let's hope my luck holds out...I've only been stung once in my life, and I was about 7 years old...so I've gone decades without being stung again! Good thing as the docs make me nervous when they say it's likely the next sting would be worse.

Ok better get back to thinking about the beauty of the Osa...

plumboy

Just stay calm, don't bat at them or flail around. You'll be fine. Oh, and don't sit on one.

Melissa5

plumboy: I usually try to avoid the bees since I'm allergic. If they want to take over my table, I move and let them have the whole table. I even leave them a snack so they won't follow me!

I will try not to sit on one!

I was worried about bees flying around the shower, since I can't avoid the shower, but my husband says bees aren't nocturnal, so I can solve the problem by getting my shower at night when bees aren't active if I'm worried.

Did you read the bosque del cabo tripadvisor review by the man who had army ants in his cabina, so he supposedly spent an hour and a half killing them? Yikes, NOT a good solution to ants. We get trails of regular ants in our house, and if you try to kill them, more just keep coming to take their place, and they get lost and confused so instead of a neat trail of ants, you get a mass confusion of ants all over the room! Sometimes it's better to just leave the ant trail alone, especially if it's far from your bed, and try to avoid leaving out anything for them to eat.

I am eager to stop worrying and start focusing on the fun and excitement of our trip.

plumboy

I understand the worry -- I was worried about taking my partner to BdC because he can be a bit wimpy and over reactive about critters, but, honestly, you have nothing to worry about. None of these things -- ants, bats, bees, scorpions, snakes -- are out to get us. They couldn't care less -- that's not their motivation.

As long as you have your flashlight at the head of the bed and make sure you shine it onto your flip flops or sandles or whatever you have by the bed in the middle of the night (and you should wear something on your feet) before you put them on, you'll be fine. Use the flashlight to make sure there's nothing on the toilet or on the mosquito net -- use it to make sure you don't step on and kill anything as you walk, you'll be fine. Keep all bags zipped up and closed, shake out all shoes, keep any food at least double ziplock bagged, etc. -- you'll be fine.

I guess it really does depend on the time of year and sheer luck, but the only thing we had in our cabin at all was a toad one night, and he kept to himself. Not even one gecko in three days. There WAS some strange poop on the floor one day that we could never figure out -- it seemed too big to be a bat or gecko or something like that -- definitely seemed like a small mammal, but never figured it out. Maybe a monkey or pizote ran through when we weren't looking?

It's funny, my partner is the one who seemed to be more freaked out by what MIGHT be there, but he was the one who loved taking nighttime showers -- I was actually a little creeped out by that. So, go figure.

Our fears almost never live up to our fantasies. It'll be one of the most relaxing experiences of your life.