A rainbow (and hazy twin off to the right) seen from the beach reached by one of Bosque del Cabo’s trails.

A week or so ago, my family and I visited a nature lodge at the tip of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula called Bosque del Cabo. It was the first time I’d been to the lodge, and in the initial twelve hours of being there, I was struck by three important things that in the coming days I saw as characterizing the Bosque experience.

We arrived at around 6PM, so we started by getting settled in one of the several casas that complement the cabinas as more spacious and family-friendly accommodations. It was pretty much completely dark out at this point, but I could tell that from the porch at the back of the casa that we overlooked either the Pacific Ocean or the Golfo Dulce (the gulf created by the Osa Peninsula). The next day, I was proved right — and the view from most of the oceanside casas and cabinas is stunning. This view of the ocean and Golfo Dulce (depending on where you are on the property, which by the way has over 750 acres of private forest reserve) was the first important thing I noticed about Bosque del Cabo.

The second came when we sat down for dinner. In the bread baskets was ciabatta that, although I’ve never been to Italy, tasted and felt like it had been baked in Veneto a mere fifteen minutes earlier. I actually can’t remember the main course that first night because the bread was so good, but the rest of our meals at all times of the day were amazingly good for being in the middle of the jungle quite far away from any major Costa Rican city.

A pair of agoutis. The individual on the right appears to be immature.

The final — and in my opinion, the most important — draw of Bosque is the wildlife that roams the huge reserve as well as the lodge grounds. The first morning, as I left the casa to do a little bird-watching before breakfast, I was surprised to see an immense troop of white-nosed coatis calmly checking the grass for arthropods and palm fruit to eat. This was the largest group of coatis I’ve ever seen, and I was pleased to notice during my visit that none of them begged for food the way some individuals at national parks in Costa Rica do. Although they were certainly habituated to humans, it was not to the extent that they let me get even within fifteen feet of them, which was a good sign. The same went for the agoutis, which in my prior experience were extremely timid animals that you could only count on barely catching a glimpse of in the forest as they ran away screaming (literally, screaming). In the open areas of Bosque del Cabo they felt comfortable seeing humans relatively close by, but when I startled them on the forest trails they were just as easily frightened as ever.

In my next post, I’ll share more photos and experiences with the wildlife I saw at Bosque del Cabo, including lots of cool birds!