emmajm

Before five nights at Bosque del Cabo in early December, I am planning to stay in Puerto Jimenez to do all the tours we might want first; also I want to experience the town. I had been thinking three nights at Cabinas Jimenez, but whoops! I scheduled four nights.

Now I'm wondering if I should do two nights at Cabinas Jimenez and two at the club rooms at Iguana Lodge, or are four nights total too much for Puerto Jimenez? I'm not planning a tour to Corcovado itself.

This is our second trip to Costa Rica. Our first was Monteverde, Arenal, Tortuguero and Puerto Viejo. This trip will be mostly all Osa. I've read about Bosque del Cabo for a long time. Cabinas Jimenez seems like a nice place and more budget friendly. But Iguana Lodge tempts me too.

Thanks.

tully

Four nights at CJ is a but much, though you could still find plenty of activities to do. You could do the animal sanctuary tour, the botanical garden tour, the chocolate tour, a day trip to La Tarde, a river trip, kayaking, etc etc.

If you want to stay at the beach for a little less, you can also look into Agua Dulce, which is literally next door to Iguana Lodge.

RAC

I would just spend all the nights at Iguana Lodge club rooms. Great food, right on the ocean, remote setting, lovely oasis of a setting.

MonicaRichards

Hmm, I am spending four nights at Cabinas Jimenez, yikes! I will let you know how it goes. We don't mind doing nothing (well the rest of my family doesn't mind doing nothing at least) so hopefully we will be fine. Then we head to Bosque del Cabo for a total of eight nights in the area.

hipvirgochick

RAC I'll be spending 4 nights in the IL club rooms early July. What type of things did you do from there? I think I'll do kayaking again but othere than that I'm looking for new things to do in that area. Did you do the night hike? I'd really like to go out fishing for day.

RAC

We spent three nights there, two full days.

We did:

mangrove kayaking
dolphin watching (with a brief turn up Rio Esquinas)
Night hike on the Rio Nuevo

We also hung out by the pool/hammock/yoga area quite a bit. Also some beach time.

We had dinner one night with a group who had gone fishing, with good results (caught a huge tuna)

Trip report here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/mexi...s-matapalo.cfm

colibri

Sidnar, resident guide at IL, is a wonderful birder if that interests you. We were there in Villa Villa Kula for three nights, just loved it. We booked a dolphin watching tour, but due to a supermoon the waves were too high, so we ended up going up the Rio Esquina for wildlife and birding.

RAC

If you want SERIOUS birding, you can do a very early morning tour with Abraham at Bosque del Rio Tigre from Iguana Lodge.

emmajm

Thanks for the responses. I'll think about it awhile, and look for Monica's report. Probably one major activity a day, plus wandering around town, napping, trying out the sodas wil be enough. Somebody does gold mining tours? Definitely boat and kayak.

Rac, we are only semiserious birders. But sitting around looking at colorful birds is great. By the way, we like our Pentax Papilio binoculars, because they focus as close as 1.6 feet, good for looking at bugs, flowers, tarantulas as well as far things.

volcanogirl

Bookmarking.

hipvirgochick

Thanks for the info, RAC, and for the link to your report (which I will go read through now). I may be up for intense birding, but I guess it partly depends on what I end up doing from BDC. I want to fish for tuna but I'm not sure it's the right season. I'm very much ready to end this trip with some R & R massage and beach time.

RAC

Our first afternoon tour at BdRT, we saw a different species about once every 3-4 minutes.

hipvirgochick

Oooooh. Ok. That's on my list then! I've been out a couple times with Carlos in different areas around BDC, but BdRT sounds great. Is it far from IL?

steph270

Rac - thanks for the info! We haven't stayed in PJ before. We did the wildlife sanctuary from BDC and we did a little touring with our boat driver because we were early - he was super nice. While I am a far cry from a "birder", the hubby and I are becoming more interested each trip. The bird watching sounds awesome. We have 3 days in PJ...sounds like a plan!

RAC

Not that far--under an hour away--but you'd have to leave Iguana Lodge at 4:30 AM . . .

BdRT doesn't have the mammals you'd find at Bosque del Cabo, but there are definitely birds (including regional endemics)you don't see at Bosque del Cabo (turquoise and yellow-billed cotinga, orange-collared manakin, guaranteed sighting of black-cheeked ant tanager, etc).

hipvirgochick

4:30. Eeek. Ok, I can probably manage that...ONCE. lol

RAC

If you book a tour at BdRT, I'd encourage you to write Abraham and Liz if you have any species you're especially interested in. Different species are found in different spots.

hipvirgochick

Will do then. Thanks!

MonicaRichards

I am happy to report that four nights in Puerto Jimenez is not too much! We borrowed bikes and rode to where the crocodiles are and around the countryside, toured Finca Kobo, the chocolate plantation, which was awesome and I highly recommend it, hung out at the pool and the beach, played with the little black kitten, saw all kinds of birds, took the most excellent dolphin/wildlife sanctuary tour where we got to spend about an hour with a pod that included babies and lots of acrobatics by the dolphin. They also seemed to like to tease Oso the dog who was at the prow of the boat so that was fun to watch. Would have liked to take the night insect tour and take the kayaks out to the mangroves but we ran out of time. Would definitely stay at Cabinas Jimenez again-nice place and I liked being right near the town so we could really feel the vibe of being in a Costa Rican town. It was the first time the kids really could tell what it would be like to live here and not just be a tourist.

emmajm

Thanks for the report. You ran out of time! I agree it's good to experience a bit of a real place, not just the tourist side. And I want to bike to crocodiles.