Some like it hot: a trek through Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula

[graceland]

Great ending to your trip SC....I love the Macaws pics at the end! Thank goodness you had at least one camera with a zoom.

 

CR is a great family destination with so much to do between the water, the hiking, and the jungle.

 

Your villa at Bosque was quite nice! That would be a good long term stay..

 

It's great to expose your girls to so many cultures and experiences.

 

How did they rate Costa Rica-- as so many teenagers love it? Or compared to their Africa experience, were they just as thrilled? Curious as I am always trying to talk my neighbors with older kids to go to Africa, yet every Spring Break they head to Dominican Republic, Beliize or Costa Rica. Could be all the water activities. Oh and price...I forget about the added cost so I answered my own question.

 

No way that spider would ever get near this face!

[Atravelynn]

You scored big with the scarlet macaws!

[SafariChick]

@@graceland I just asked my younger daughter and she said she'd probably have to say she prefers Africa. She said the only thing she likes better about Costa Rica is a shorter flight. She likes the variety of animals in Africa and she liked riding along in the vehicles bundled up (S. Africa winter) and seeing the animals. My older daughter also preferred Africa because it is colder - she is not a big fan of the heat and I haven't taken her there in hot weather, so I guess she's more a fan of S. Africa in winter! Despite my best efforts I think they've had enough wildlife-specific travel for now so the next family trip might focus on something else!

[wenchy]

lovely photos. especially love the bats. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a wonderful trip.

[TonyQ]

@@SafariChick

I reall enjoyed your report

Great picture of the macaw flying towards you at the end

You packed a lot in to a short time

Thank you!

[Whyone?]

Bird (not sure what it is)

 

IMG_1758

 

 

Crested Caracara.

[graceland]

@@graceland I just asked my younger daughter and she said she'd probably have to say she prefers Africa. She said the only thing she likes better about Costa Rica is a shorter flight. She likes the variety of animals in Africa and she liked riding along in the vehicles bundled up (S. Africa winter) and seeing the animals. My older daughter also preferred Africa because it is colder - she is not a big fan of the heat and I haven't taken her there in hot weather, so I guess she's more a fan of S. Africa in winter! Despite my best efforts I think they've had enough wildlife-specific travel for now so the next family trip might focus on something else!

Good to know we have future" Safaritalkers" amongst us....teaching them well @@SafariChick!

 

Yes you can't expect them to indulge in wildlife on every vacation; perhaps a sail through the BVI's in the future. We enjoyed that with our family in summertime.

[SafariChick]

@@Whyone? ah thanks for the bird ID!

[michael-ibk]

 

 

Despite my best efforts I think they've had enough wildlife-specific travel for now so the next family trip might focus on something else!

 

So you just have to go on your own again.

 

Thanks for your report, I really enjoyed it. But makes things more complicated for me - had thought about Ecuador/Galapagos or Brazil for the next trip to South America. Now Costa Rica is suddenly a contender, too, and it´s all your fault.

[Atravelynn]

Can you discuss value in Costa Rica, SafariChick? It is a vague question by design. However you wish to approach it or interpret it.

[SafariChick]

Well, I always tell people that once you've been to Africa, no where else seems expensive and no destination seems a long plane ride! Of course, that is U.S.-centric since for us (especially me, in CA) getting to Africa is 24 hours plus. Getting to Costa Rica only takes an hour to LA and then 5.5 hours to San Jose. The cost of the round trip flight for me was about $650 if I recall correctly vs. $1,500 to $2,000 to get to Africa. Once in Costa Rica, you may want to take a small plane to get to another destination (as we did getting to the Osa) but it is not very pricey. As I recall, each small plane was perhaps $100 or less per segment.

 

In terms of places to stay, there is a great variety in price, even on the Osa Peninsula which is relatively small and non-touristy. In Drake Bay, our first destination, the place we stayed was $120 per night for all four of us including breakfast! When we stayed overnight in Corcovado, it worked out to about $1,080 for the boat ride, two days and one night with our guide with us the whole time, and two lunches, a dinner and a breakfast for all of us. They told us they were not charging for our younger daughter so I guess divide by 3 to get the approximate per person charge for that. Though if you were on your own, I'm not sure how they would charge for the guide to take just one person. Might be more per person that way, i.e. a single supplement type thing. The dolphin trip was very reasonable, good value I thought - we were out for about 4 hours but it could have been longer, we just chose to call it a day since we'd had such a good sighting and our daughter was ill and we'd been up all night already! But it was $750 for the four of us for a private boat trip with the amazing guide Shawn Larkin for that day. If we'd wanted to have a non-private trip, it would have been $600 for the four of us and we could have had up to 12 people on the boat I think - he would have then used a larger boat but we liked the private, intimate trip we did, well worth the extra $150 to us.

 

Now there are other places to stay in Drake Bay that definitely are more pricey. For instance, a lovely-looking place where friends of ours stayed once is La Paloma Lodge. They do things differently - rather than the B&B where we stayed and all that was included was breakfast, La Paloma has packages for 3, 4 and 5 nights. The 3-day package during high season (generally December through April) is between $990 and $1245 per person for the whole 3 days including meals and two day-long activities - one being a day trip to Corcovado (but no overnight) and one being a day trip to go snorkeling at Cano Island - this was an activity we chose not to do as we've snorkeled in Hawaii and from what i heard the snorkeling at Cano is ok but not as good so we decided to skip it. I think La Paloma looks fabulous but I felt that we wouldn't be there that much to enjoy it and I didn't like that we would have to use their guide to Corcovado rather than the one I wanted to use, and that it would be a day trip not overnight. And I didn't want to spend that much money in Drake since we were going to spend more at Bosque. I knew I wanted to splurge there because they had so many trails that we wouldn't be going off-property for activities, we'd just be doing them there so it would be all in one place, if that makes sense.

 

In Puerto Jimenez, there are less expensive options too and some people choose to stay at one of those places part of their trip and do activities from there such as visiting an animal sanctuary that is across the water, doing a dolphin trip (I might have done one had we not done the one with Shawn at Drake), etc. Bosque has several kinds of accommodations and their prices per person in those vary depending upon how many people are in the cabina and which type of cabina it is. For example, assuming a couple traveling together, a classic cabina is $235 per person per night, a deluxe one is $260 per person per night. These rates include meals and walking the trails yourself but guided walks or other activities are extra. We had four people and got the Casa Blanca House which was $495 per night but that didn't include meals. You could stop at a grocery store and choose to have food there and cook all your own meals if you wanted (full kitchen and fridge were there), buy a meal package at the restaurant, or do some combination where you made some meals yourself and ate some at the restaurant. Meal packages were $65 per day for adults and $50 per day for kids. We figured out it was really worth it to us to have the house and get the meal packages because in a deluxe cabina the cost per person would have been $210 including meals so a total of $840 for the four of us. In Casa Blanca, it was $495 plus $245 for meals which was $740 - so somehow it worked out less expensive to have a much bigger house! The cabinas are fine for two people but for four, I would definitely go for the house - the sleeping arrangement in the cabina for more than four people was there was a loft you climbed a ladder to get to and I think it would have been hot up there. Oh there are also garden cabinas that don't have the ocean view and breeze and cost less than the deluxe and classic prices I mentioned. It's a longer walk to the main lodge and hotter there.

 

In the other areas of Costa Rica we visited on our first trip, we saw a lot of monkeys and birds and some sloths and there the accommodations were less expensive - a place we enjoyed near the Arenal Volcano for example was a bed and breakfast called Leaves and Lizards. I just checked the cost now and It's about $200 per night for two people (not per person) for a cabina with beautiful view of the volcano, and $345 per night for up to 4 people for a house - these include breakfast. It was a beautiful rural setting with birds and other wildlife visible all around on the property and activities for extra cost (wonderful horse-back riding trip with their own horses to a private waterfall where we got to swim with no one else around and the guide brought lunch for us including fresh pineapple - yum. On the way he found bats and sloths for us to see!

 

So in sum, I think Costa Rica is a very good value!

[Treepol]

@@SafariChick what a lot you managed to do on your Costa Rica trip. The intrepid start from school and flight to dolphin trip is commendable! Fabulous view from your cabana.

 

Wow, so many tapir in a single walk is a great memory along with the scarlet macaws and such a big variety of monkeys. I was surprised that so many Pantanal species occurred in Osa, although geographically this kinda makes sense. I've added Costa Rica to my long list on the strength of your report. Where to next?

[SafariChick]

Well just to clarify, we saw two tapir on each of three walks - so six all together but only two per walk! Felt really lucky to see them all. Glad you are interested in going to CR.

Next for me looks like it will be Zambia with @@Sangeeta and @@graceland - and maybe others who want to come along - we'll be heading to Kafue and Liuwa in Nov. 2015 - can't wait!

[Kitsafari]

@@SafariChick only now am i able to find time to read your trip through at one go. what a great sight of the tapirs! from what i hear from documentaries, wild tapirs are very difficult to sight. you're a touchstone for tapirs then!

 

and i love that pic of that macaw coming straight at you - it seems to say, see you on your next trip. they are so bright and gorgeous.

 

costa rica, or anywhere in south america will be tough for us. the flight there alone will probably take us some 28 hours and probably 4 or 5 stopovers. we have galapagos on our bucket list, so if we do go there (not in the immediate future sadly), we'll prob do it once and not return to south america again.

 

so excited for you ladies for Nov 2015!!!

[SafariChick]

@@Kitsafari Yes the tapirs were really special! Apparently it's not unusual to see them resting at least during the day for people who visit Corcovado but seeing the pair swimming and then seeing the mama and baby was really fantastic.

 

I have to smile when you say the flight alone will take you some 28 hours as it takes me about 24-35 hours depending on routing and where I'm going. Somehow I did it twice in 8 months and I would do it more often if it was affordable, so I do sympathize with you!

 

I wish you could join us in Nov. 2015!

[Kitsafari]

@@Kitsafari Yes the tapirs were really special! Apparently it's not unusual to see them resting at least during the day for people who visit Corcovado but seeing the pair swimming and then seeing the mama and baby was really fantastic.

 

I have to smile when you say the flight alone will take you some 28 hours as it takes me about 24-35 hours depending on routing and where I'm going. Somehow I did it twice in 8 months and I would do it more often if it was affordable, so I do sympathize with you!

 

I wish you could join us in Nov. 2015!

 

Me too!

 

it's 28 hours if you pay more, but 45 hours if you want it cheap. but i can sympathize with you on those hours you have to travel from eastern US to Jburg. they should have more direct flights to Africa, especially since the bulk of travellers to Africa come from the US! thank goodness, it is a shorter flight to go to J'burg from singapore!

Edited May 6, 2014 by Kitsafari

[SafariChick]

@@Kitsafari oh I meant to say of course it takes me 24 to 35 hours to get to AFRICA but I see you understood what I meant. And I'm in the western U.S. so it's 5 more hours for me than for those in NY, Washington DC, etc. I don't know that the bulk of travelers to Africa come from the U.S. though - I would have thought it was many more from the UK and Europe. Just looking at the active members on ST I would guess we have more UK than US but anyone know any statistics on how many travellers to Africa come from U.S. vs. Europe and UK?

[Marks]

I'm glad I got to see this, even if I am a little late. I was in the Osa Peninsula in 2011 (we stayed at the Pirate Cove), and your report brings back a lot of memories. We also saw tapirs and peccaries, but your photos are much better. It looks like you had a great time.

[SafariChick]

@@Marks thanks about the photos - it is definitely harder to take decent photos in Costa Rica compared to Africa, between the fact that the animals are often not as close and that they are in the rainforest with so many leaves and trees and dappled shadows! I was lucky to get up close to those peccaries and tapirs! We did have a great time, thanks.

[nancymacd]

Hello,

I was hoping you could help me finalize our itinerary. I am traveling with my husband and 2 daughters in their 20's with their boyfriends over the New Year. We are currently booked to stay in the Arenal Volcano area for 3 nights and I am debating between Uvita and Puerto Jimenez for the second half of the trip. We decided to pass on Manuel Antonio because we thought it would be very crowded and too touristy. Since you have been to both do you think the Arenal area is too similar to the Puerto Jimenez area and we should go to Uvita instead? Thanks

[SafariChick]

Hi @@nancymacd and welcome to Safaritalk! I did not spend a lot of time in Uvita - we did a day trip from Manuel Antonio to Domnical, which I think is a little north of Uvita, and my husband and kids surfed there - the beach was crazy hot (in February) and there were a lot of people selling trinkets near the beach we went to and I remember we were told we couldn't drink the tap water there even though we could at the other places we stayed on that trip, i.e. Arenal area and Manuel Antonio. Then we drove further south to Marina Ballena Park which I remember having a very pretty and rather deserted beach. Neither of those places would be as good to visit as the Osa Peninsula, in my opinion. I didn't spend much time in Puerto Jimenez itself - it's kind of a dusty city but it's a gateway to activities and lodges that have lots of wildlife. If you mean going to Puerto Jimenez and staying at somewhere like Bosque del Cabo, then I'd say definitely do that. It is less touristy than Arenal and less developed but you'll see animals both places. Uvita/Domenical I think is more about the beach - there are beaches near Puerto Jimenez too but I think more animals. Hope that is helpful.

[Atdahl]

I'm a little late to the reading party but it sure was fun. Sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for posting the report. It just makes me want to get back to the Osa.

[SafariChick]

@@Atdahl thanks, glad you enjoyed it - yes it was a great trip!

[sparklegem]

Your report was fantastic!! I enjoyed reading of your adventures, seeing the photos and watching your amazing videos!

You have inspired me to go to Corcovado! I really want to see the tapirs <3 ! Bosque is one of my very favorite places and I would love to spend a night or two in the park before.

I was wondering how you found your guide Nito (you really seem to do your research!) and if you recommend him, and if so, would you share his contact information.

I am interested to learn about your other trips, too! I love that you travel with your daughters. We always travel with our daughter, too!

[SafariChick]

@@sparklegem so glad to hear I've inspired you to go to Corcovado - it is definitely worth it, especially for a Costa Rica lover like you! I found Nito on another forum in discussions of guides for Corcovado and he was totally a great decision. You can't go wrong with him, and I do do a lot of research, yes! Nito works through Surcos Tours which is a family business and here is contact information for him. http://surcostours.com/guides

 

I don't ALWAYS travel with my daughters as they don't really enjoy it as much as I do but I try to take them on at least some trips!