So much to do in southern Costa Rica but we have so little time ;-(

We are really looking forward to going to the southern Pacific part of CR and have discovered there is so much to do in this area - from Quepos all the way down to Corcovado.
Since we only have 5 nights I have been doing so much more planning than we usually do before leaving on a trip - we are usually "wing it" types when we travel & do not do much planning on things to do when we get wherever we are going.

Luckily I managed to hook up with an expat who moved to CR about 8 years ago and lives in Sierpe (right outside of Corcovado NP) and she has been priceless - she sends me weather updates, whale & turtle updates and is taking care of all our arrangements for our "Corcovado day"
The Cuna del Angel hotel folks were great and hooked me up with a very informative & helpful car rental guy who sent me all the new CR driving rules - apparently they have come up with a whole new set of rules & have been very aggressive in enforcing them - if you get stopped becuase you broke one of the new rules - fines are steep $500!

So I sat down last night and came up with our whole plan - a 1st for me - the hubby was impressed - he does not contribute, he just tells me as long as I have not been there before - go for it.
Day 1 - arrive in Quepos around 3:30pm - meet the rental car guy and get our car, stop in Quepos supermarket to pick up supplies, drive approx. 45 minutes to hotel , check in and head into Dominical for dinner then back to hotel for some serious hot tubbing!
Day 2 - head down to Uvita to hook up with the local expat and make final arrangements for Corcovado Day, check out Uvita - shop, eat, check out Marina Ballena NP & local environs
Day 3 - all day at Hacineda Baru ( a mixed private/national reserve - the beach area is a national reserve & the rest is privately owned by yet another expat) Self guided hiking during the day, late lunch/early dinner at the Hacienda's restaurant, 2 hour guided night jungle hike, & then conditions permitting, down to the beach for turtle time
Day 4 - Manuel Antonio & Los Quetzales national parks, dinner in Quepos, back to hotel to return rental car, hot tub again!
Day 5 - Corcovado Day - get picked up around 5-5:30am, 1 hr.drive, 1 1/2 hr. boat through Drake Bay - wet landing into Corcovado, 2 hr. hike to the ranger station, lunch, 2 hour hike, back to boat and then back to hotel around 7pm.. So wish we had another day as we really, really want to do an overnight right in this park - will save for a future trip!
Day 6 - back home ;-(
We will be busy but it will be so much fun - Baru & Corcovado both have all 3 jungle cats but since we can not do an overnight in either place this time chances are slim on a sighting but we can always hope........................chances are pretty good for tapirs, silky anteaters and the usual CR critters we have seen before - coatis, scarlet macaws (Corcovado has the largest population in CR), quetzals, monkeys. I guess you can see why my profile came out Adventure Traveler in the LL quiz!

Just heard back from this place and they invited us to come to the reserve and patrol the beach for 3 hours one night with the rangers and look for turtles laying eggs or babies hatching -cool!
They also have a large population of scarlet macaws - I think the hubby will be taking lots of pictures on this trip


Playa Tortuga Marine Conservation and Research Center - Home

Looks like you have many wonderful experiences waiting for you! Have an amazing time!

Holy shlamoley! Nice itinerary. Love the "beach patrol"--awesome.

Denise, seems like a busy schedule. Did you factor in a smoke break along the way?

btw, No Smoking in the rental vehicle or there are fines in CR for doing so!

denise, you will need a vacation when your return from CR.

Did you get your AA reservations resolved to your satisfaction?

Hi d....great trip! Quepos has a few great small restaurants. Most seem to have fixed three course meals. We loved a Lebanese place in Quepos. It is called Bogarts. Check it out. Will you have a guide in Manual Antonio? We had a guide and it was a great experience. You might want to consider one. Enjoy!!!

The only place we will have a guide is for Corcovado - they really, really do not like/let folks wander around Corcovado by themselves since this park can actually be dangerous. We will also have a guide on the night tour at Hacienda Baru. The rest are all self guided which is what we prefer and usually do. When we did Monteverde and Tortuguero in March we were supposed to have a guided tour but Jeff & I left the group and went off on our own and I have to say - we saw lots of Quetzals but the folks that stayed with the guide did not ;-)
We do have a rental car and all the places are pretty close to the hotel (less than 1 hour) so for us this is not really a packed itinerary since whenever we have a car, we get up early, have breakfast and go, go, go.

Bonniejoy - did you go further south than Quepos/Manuel Antonio at all? The Cuna del Angel is approx. 1 hour south of Quepos between Dominical & Uvita. Been going through LL packages looking for CR packages further south for 2013 - so far nothing ;-( but there is always Lapos Rios right outside of Corcovado and you can stay at the ranger station in Corcovado so we are thinking about it.

Mountie - when did they change the rules about smoking in rental cars in CR - we never had a problem with this although there are quite a few new "driving rules" in CR so I am glad the car guy sent them to me - 3 pages long! This hotel is supposed to be non-smoking and so was the Monteverde Lodge but we have our ways of getting around this - we never smoke in our rooms even when the hotel allows it but one of the reasons we book hotels with patios & balconies......

Omegaet - so far so good on the AA reservations - no neew changes or cancellations - keeping the fingers crossed!

Hi D....no, we didn't go further south. We stayed at Gaia at the Manual Antonio area. It was very nice. We enjoyed going into Quepos for meals. IT is a touristy area. The park is nice. At the entrance, there will be a lot of people with telescopes offering tours. We really enjoying going with a guide. The telescope definitely helped. We were able to see a few sloths. They really blend in with the trees because their bodies become covered in moss!!! They look like chia pets!

Saw many sloths in the Tortuguero and Monterverde areas in CR last March - we always have our own binocs and mini telescope. In Panama we actually saw a sloth very close up while on a boat in the canals - so much moss and ants on it and we actually reached out and touched it - the fur is very coarse. They are one of my favorite animals!

I figuered thast Quepos was pretty touristy, however, the plus is that there is probably a larger local supermarket (all the better to buy coffee). I have read that parking near MA is expensive and that you have to watch out for the supposed car minders that are illegal and make sure you park in the park's actual parking area - we are pretty good at spotting the spammers though so should be OK ;-) We are going to Los Quetzales NP in the morning and then MA in the early afternoon - actually looking forward to LQ NP more than MA since LQ is a cloud forest. MA will be fun for the monkeys