Bosque del Cabo trip report-long.
Mar 5th, 2006, 09:07 AM
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Bosque del Cabo trip report-long.
I learned about Bosque from reading this board and we just returned from there 2/18-2/26. It was everything that everyone on the board had said.
For those who leave from Logan we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Revere/Saugus and could leave the car for 21 days for $125-a bargain now because all the other hotels have begun charging exhorbitant rates for this, especially during vacation weeks. This hotel is about 5 miles from Logan but the service is good. Pizza Fri. night at Santaprios in East Boston- one of the world's best.
Delta flight had some problems. It was 15 minutes late to Atlanta-we ran and just made the connection to San Jose. Friends who were on our flight ran to their plane headed for the Turke/Caicos -thought they made it because the plane was boarding but their zone had boarded and Delta had sold their tickets-they lost a day of their vacation so beware-I didn't think the airline could do this.
Flight to San Jose uneventful. We stayed at the Hotel Don Carlos which is a unique Costa Rican hotel-very reasonable-good restaurant and great gift shop. Thanks to someone on this board who recommended it last year. We walked around San Jose for about an hour.
Next morning to Nature Air to Puerto Jimenez- a little bumpy over the mountains but not a bad ride. You disembark the plane right next to the cemetery-we thought that was convenient.
Kevin from Bosque was waiting-he was our intro to the great Bosque staff-very friendly and explained a lot to us on the 45 minute drive-you cross three creeks but they were low in the rainy season. The family in the car with us from Massachusetts had already lost a day of their vacation because their limo driver had overslept. Just another warning for those who leave from major airports. We arrived at Bosque-greeted by Gerily and were assigned Mariposa cabin after a brief wait.I had requested Congo because someone on this board had recommended it but Mariposa was the last cabin and very private. We loved the room with the mosquito netting and kept the doors open all night as we slept. The outdoor shower is beautiful and we put all our $$ passports etc in the safe and left them their for the rest of the week-when you don't need money with you it is really a vacation.
The grounds are georgeous, the trails extensive and the entire staff is fabulous. For the next week we hiked the trails looking for wildlife, hiked to both the Pacific and Gulf beaches and just had a great time. The four hour trail talk by Phil the biologist is amazing. We also did the bird watching tour with Eduardo which was excellent-even when a parrot in its nest in a tree tried to attack me when I peeked in.
We saw Toucans, peccaries, sloths and lots of other birds. Some of the kids saw a boa in a hollow tree one day but we were away and missed that.All the meals were wonderful. At Bosque the staff sits you at tables of ten which was a lot of fun because you got to meet the other guests. Everyone raved about how nice the wait staff was.
We did take one day trip to swim with the dolphins and visit an animal sanctuary that was started by a woman who used to work on Wall Street. Both are highly recommended.
We hiked to the Golfo Dulce beach three times because we do like to spend some time at the beach. Bosque will pick you up at the beach which we did all three times. $10 charge.
Every evening around dusk a small troop(5 or6) of spider monkeys would swing through the trees next to our cabin and settle in for the night.Never got tired of watching them arrive.
Did have a bat in the bathroom one night. He went away later that night but after that we closed the doors at dusk, went to dinner and opened the doors for the night when we crawled into bed-under the netting.
We loved Bosque and thought the pricing was reasonable,especially compared to St. John USVI which we visited for many years. But if you want a lot of beach this may not be the place for you. The Pacific Beach is to rough for swimming although there are nice tidal pools at low tide. It is very beautiful but if you hike down you must hike back. It takes about 30 minutes each way. The hike to the Gulf beaches took us over an hour although my wife is a slow hiker.Two of the beaches are pretty rough- one is definitely for advanced surfers-the third is very calm, very warm water but rocky on the bottom.
Day trips can be expensive because most require a $50 transportation fee to Puerto Jimenez. We went on our trip with a couple at Bosque who had a rental car with them. If the minimum # of people don't sign up (for our trip 4) you can still go but the cost will be twice as much. At first we thought we wouldn't be able to do the Dolphin trip because it was so expensive but then the other couple decided to do it.
There were a few guests who clearly weren't happy about the hiking. If you just want to veg on a beach for a week this isn't the place for you.
Finally tipping- the Bosque book in each cabin gives you advice but we agonized a little-we hadn't budgeted tipping because we usually pay a service charge in Central America and assumed wrongly it was in the price here already. We wanted to tip everybody generously because this staff is really wonderful but that would have been expensive for us so in the end we just tipped the three young servers, the maid and driver. I forgot to recommend on their evaluation that Bosque should consider a 10% service charge and split it among all the staff-even the ones you don't see.They did this at resort in Belize where we stayed and we were very happy to pay it there because the staff was also excellent.
Flight back to San Jose was rough. Nature air flies 19 seater twin otter with two pilots. Apparently these are famous planes and very safe but the winds were strong and the plane was buffeted badly. One kid and one adult lost it. Much as we loved Bosque and Costa Rica my wife wants at least one year off from litle planes-we have been in these planes at least ten time previously without any bad wind so we do know this isn't common.
Back to the Don Carlos-bought some gifts in their shop and a place called Nanu which is all handigrafts by Central American indigenous peoples. Bosque had recommended it. Walked to Cafe Mundo for dinner-recommended by Don Carlos and Bosque- excellent dinner with wine-$24.Walked back in the dark three blocks to the Don Carlos-no problems although the guide book recommended against this. Apparently street crime has increased in San Jose.
Delta guy at the airport tells us flight to Atlanta is delayed one hour- we won't make the Boston connection because of customs so we are going to Cincinnati, spending the night there and retruning to Boston Monday. We say we have jobs to go to Monday morning. He says ok we can try. At least half the people on this flight are worried about connection in Atlanta now. We run again through the airport and get to our gate in Atlanta just as our zone is boarding. Happy ending. Lesson- Leave lots of connecting time between flights in the future.
Again thanks to the people on this board who wrote about Bosque-I don't know if I would have found out about it otherwise.
For those who leave from Logan we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Revere/Saugus and could leave the car for 21 days for $125-a bargain now because all the other hotels have begun charging exhorbitant rates for this, especially during vacation weeks. This hotel is about 5 miles from Logan but the service is good. Pizza Fri. night at Santaprios in East Boston- one of the world's best.
Delta flight had some problems. It was 15 minutes late to Atlanta-we ran and just made the connection to San Jose. Friends who were on our flight ran to their plane headed for the Turke/Caicos -thought they made it because the plane was boarding but their zone had boarded and Delta had sold their tickets-they lost a day of their vacation so beware-I didn't think the airline could do this.
Flight to San Jose uneventful. We stayed at the Hotel Don Carlos which is a unique Costa Rican hotel-very reasonable-good restaurant and great gift shop. Thanks to someone on this board who recommended it last year. We walked around San Jose for about an hour.
Next morning to Nature Air to Puerto Jimenez- a little bumpy over the mountains but not a bad ride. You disembark the plane right next to the cemetery-we thought that was convenient.
Kevin from Bosque was waiting-he was our intro to the great Bosque staff-very friendly and explained a lot to us on the 45 minute drive-you cross three creeks but they were low in the rainy season. The family in the car with us from Massachusetts had already lost a day of their vacation because their limo driver had overslept. Just another warning for those who leave from major airports. We arrived at Bosque-greeted by Gerily and were assigned Mariposa cabin after a brief wait.I had requested Congo because someone on this board had recommended it but Mariposa was the last cabin and very private. We loved the room with the mosquito netting and kept the doors open all night as we slept. The outdoor shower is beautiful and we put all our $$ passports etc in the safe and left them their for the rest of the week-when you don't need money with you it is really a vacation.
The grounds are georgeous, the trails extensive and the entire staff is fabulous. For the next week we hiked the trails looking for wildlife, hiked to both the Pacific and Gulf beaches and just had a great time. The four hour trail talk by Phil the biologist is amazing. We also did the bird watching tour with Eduardo which was excellent-even when a parrot in its nest in a tree tried to attack me when I peeked in.
We saw Toucans, peccaries, sloths and lots of other birds. Some of the kids saw a boa in a hollow tree one day but we were away and missed that.All the meals were wonderful. At Bosque the staff sits you at tables of ten which was a lot of fun because you got to meet the other guests. Everyone raved about how nice the wait staff was.
We did take one day trip to swim with the dolphins and visit an animal sanctuary that was started by a woman who used to work on Wall Street. Both are highly recommended.
We hiked to the Golfo Dulce beach three times because we do like to spend some time at the beach. Bosque will pick you up at the beach which we did all three times. $10 charge.
Every evening around dusk a small troop(5 or6) of spider monkeys would swing through the trees next to our cabin and settle in for the night.Never got tired of watching them arrive.
Did have a bat in the bathroom one night. He went away later that night but after that we closed the doors at dusk, went to dinner and opened the doors for the night when we crawled into bed-under the netting.
We loved Bosque and thought the pricing was reasonable,especially compared to St. John USVI which we visited for many years. But if you want a lot of beach this may not be the place for you. The Pacific Beach is to rough for swimming although there are nice tidal pools at low tide. It is very beautiful but if you hike down you must hike back. It takes about 30 minutes each way. The hike to the Gulf beaches took us over an hour although my wife is a slow hiker.Two of the beaches are pretty rough- one is definitely for advanced surfers-the third is very calm, very warm water but rocky on the bottom.
Day trips can be expensive because most require a $50 transportation fee to Puerto Jimenez. We went on our trip with a couple at Bosque who had a rental car with them. If the minimum # of people don't sign up (for our trip 4) you can still go but the cost will be twice as much. At first we thought we wouldn't be able to do the Dolphin trip because it was so expensive but then the other couple decided to do it.
There were a few guests who clearly weren't happy about the hiking. If you just want to veg on a beach for a week this isn't the place for you.
Finally tipping- the Bosque book in each cabin gives you advice but we agonized a little-we hadn't budgeted tipping because we usually pay a service charge in Central America and assumed wrongly it was in the price here already. We wanted to tip everybody generously because this staff is really wonderful but that would have been expensive for us so in the end we just tipped the three young servers, the maid and driver. I forgot to recommend on their evaluation that Bosque should consider a 10% service charge and split it among all the staff-even the ones you don't see.They did this at resort in Belize where we stayed and we were very happy to pay it there because the staff was also excellent.
Flight back to San Jose was rough. Nature air flies 19 seater twin otter with two pilots. Apparently these are famous planes and very safe but the winds were strong and the plane was buffeted badly. One kid and one adult lost it. Much as we loved Bosque and Costa Rica my wife wants at least one year off from litle planes-we have been in these planes at least ten time previously without any bad wind so we do know this isn't common.
Back to the Don Carlos-bought some gifts in their shop and a place called Nanu which is all handigrafts by Central American indigenous peoples. Bosque had recommended it. Walked to Cafe Mundo for dinner-recommended by Don Carlos and Bosque- excellent dinner with wine-$24.Walked back in the dark three blocks to the Don Carlos-no problems although the guide book recommended against this. Apparently street crime has increased in San Jose.
Delta guy at the airport tells us flight to Atlanta is delayed one hour- we won't make the Boston connection because of customs so we are going to Cincinnati, spending the night there and retruning to Boston Monday. We say we have jobs to go to Monday morning. He says ok we can try. At least half the people on this flight are worried about connection in Atlanta now. We run again through the airport and get to our gate in Atlanta just as our zone is boarding. Happy ending. Lesson- Leave lots of connecting time between flights in the future.
Again thanks to the people on this board who wrote about Bosque-I don't know if I would have found out about it otherwise.
Mar 5th, 2006, 10:13 AM
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So glad you had such a wonderful time. It has been one of our favorite places for years now. I can't imagine a trip to Costa Rica without at least a couple of days there.
The Mariposa is the nicest cabin IMO. Soaking in the tub under the stars was so nice. The Congo cabin is the one right next to the Mariposa. The Congo has my favorite ocean view. We saw whales from there a couple of years ago. The cabin itself is pretty small but still beautifully decorated as are all of them.
That ride from the Osa can get rough sometimes. I flew from there on a 6 seater one time and we hit a rough spot when we went over the mountains near Jaco. Hit my head pretty hard on the ceiling even though I was buckled in.
The Mariposa is the nicest cabin IMO. Soaking in the tub under the stars was so nice. The Congo cabin is the one right next to the Mariposa. The Congo has my favorite ocean view. We saw whales from there a couple of years ago. The cabin itself is pretty small but still beautifully decorated as are all of them.
That ride from the Osa can get rough sometimes. I flew from there on a 6 seater one time and we hit a rough spot when we went over the mountains near Jaco. Hit my head pretty hard on the ceiling even though I was buckled in.
Mar 5th, 2006, 05:21 PM
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What memories your trip report evokes! We're thinking of returning to BdC in March of 2007 with part of our grown kids. Such a beautiful place.
We haven't stayed at the Don Carlos is quite some time (always stay near the airport now), but it certainly will always be our hotel of choice in the city. Such a personable staff and great location. Glad you had a nice trip!
We haven't stayed at the Don Carlos is quite some time (always stay near the airport now), but it certainly will always be our hotel of choice in the city. Such a personable staff and great location. Glad you had a nice trip!
Mar 6th, 2006, 08:35 AM
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We stayed at Bosque for 5 nites,Feb-4 to Feb-8. Must have just missed you. It was all you said and more. Our cabin was Manglillo. Wonderful,private, easy to get to. My favorite memory is Jutta the massuer/reflexologist working on my feet out in the middle of the jungle, completly secluded . I'd twisted my ankle and she completely healed me as I gazed up through a cathedral of trees, spider monkeys and howlers passing back and forth. 5:00pm the sun starts to set. The golden glow added to the etherial experience. Also, horseback-riding thru the jungle and along the beach, Miguel cutting open a coconut with his giant machete to quench our thirst. always smiling, not speaking a word of English. I felt so guilty about my beautiful gray horse having to lug me thru streams and mud and hills and vales. "Mucho mujeres", I tried to explain to Miquel.. He laughed and said..."Heavy". ya.
I My least favorite: 440 steps up the Ocean Trail. I was so out of shape, I wanted to give up. But it did prepare me for second leg of our vacation, when I had to climb up to zip lines near Villa Caletas. Another amazing part of our vacation. I fell in love with Moises, our server to whom I exclaimed every day, That Bosque's ice tea is the MOST delicious ice tea I'd ever had. I drove my husband crazy every day remarking on HOW DELICIOUS this ice tea is. Moises would see me coming, and say, "Ice tea?", and I would chuckle, "Oh Moises, how well you know me!" On our last day, as we ate our last breakfast, Moises took my ice tea order. I said, "Moises, please, you must tell me how they make this delectable ice tea! Its sweet and tart all at the same time." Moises replied with his cute lisp (he has braces, which do not detract from his handsome face)..."ummm, It's...how you say.... Lipton's"
I'm such a gringo!....a very happy one, because my trip to Costa Rico was the best vacation I've had since summer camp the year puberty hit! I will write more general post about the trip very soon.
I My least favorite: 440 steps up the Ocean Trail. I was so out of shape, I wanted to give up. But it did prepare me for second leg of our vacation, when I had to climb up to zip lines near Villa Caletas. Another amazing part of our vacation. I fell in love with Moises, our server to whom I exclaimed every day, That Bosque's ice tea is the MOST delicious ice tea I'd ever had. I drove my husband crazy every day remarking on HOW DELICIOUS this ice tea is. Moises would see me coming, and say, "Ice tea?", and I would chuckle, "Oh Moises, how well you know me!" On our last day, as we ate our last breakfast, Moises took my ice tea order. I said, "Moises, please, you must tell me how they make this delectable ice tea! Its sweet and tart all at the same time." Moises replied with his cute lisp (he has braces, which do not detract from his handsome face)..."ummm, It's...how you say.... Lipton's"
I'm such a gringo!....a very happy one, because my trip to Costa Rico was the best vacation I've had since summer camp the year puberty hit! I will write more general post about the trip very soon.
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