My family and I had a great time in your home Casa Punta Banco.  You did not exaggerate when you told me, this was one of the most beautiful places in the world.   We really loved your home, the trails, waterfalls, and beach. Everyday was a beautiful adventure. When we arrived the floral arrangements were probably some of the finest I have ever seen. On your property we visited w/ the monkeys, both white faces and squirrel, and heard the howlers. We saw the macaws everyday, and the toucans occasionally; the last day six toucans said goodbye to us. We especially enjoyed the second floor porch view; on 3 maybe 4 days we watched the whales diving. We found the poison frogs, butterflies, and moths. Flora was great; she prepared amazing diners every night for us. She cleaned and also did some wash for us. Each day when she arrived, Flora walked thru the orchard, and brought fruit/spices, etc. to enhance our diners. The diners were truly restaurant quality. One day we hiked to the top of the property, really quite a challenge. Both villages, Pavones and Punta Banco, the people were great and we did almost every activity offered: from surfing to fishing. One night, one of the local Ticos even called upon us at 8:00 PM to join them in the release of the sea turtles. I will refer people to you to rent your home. Thank you for a great time, Norman Roth     

 

Hi Debby,
We arrived in the states Saturday night, and have started the work of assimilating ourselves back into the lives we separated from a few weeks ago.  We have been at a loss for how to put this incredible experience into words so that we can describe it to others.  We also know that we are different now as a result of our experience, and we will begin to understand more about that over the coming weeks.

Ecstasy:  We were overwhelmed with the beauty of Casa Punta Banco and the intensity of the plant and animal life.  I had thought previously that I understood what nature was and what wildness meant.  Our experience demonstrated to me that I knew little about it (as compared to the global standard present in Southern Costa Rica).

- We loved snorkeling in the tide pools - saw many fish, starfish, sea urchins

- Given the nightly rain, the waterfall and stream were powerful and beautiful

- We had only one day when it rained all day (our game and reading day). We were glad that we were there during green season.

- The Howler monkeys came as close as 100 feet behind the house - we loved to listen to them

- We had a few visits from the white faced monkeys at the feeding station

- We had many visits from the squirrel monkeys - sometimes up to 30 at a time.  These monkeys took banana pieces from our hands.

- The ocean view from the upstairs balcony is spectacular.  We spent many hours there, just watching and listening to the ocean.  Sunsets were beautiful!

After about one week, we really settled into our surroundings. Roselee's Spanish was working, and my pantomime skills were improving.  We struck out on two different day trips to see more of the country.  We went to Zancudo, and to San Vito.  Both trips were adventures in their own way.

By the way, Luis at Tiskita was wonderful - for only $10 per person, he did a 2 1/2 hour forest walk with us.  He is very knowledgeable, speaks English, and with spotting scope in hand, showed us many animals that we would have otherwise missed.  It was well worth it.  Next season, he plans to work at Tiskita part time (15 days on, 15 days off).  I've heard
that the other naturalists are also good.

At this point in our trip, I was driving around without directions, and frequently pulling over to talk with people I'd met.  We wanted to join the local community during our brief stay, and it was starting to happen.  This is why we extended our stay at Casa Punta Banco.  We valued getting deeper into the local culture over getting a taste of the northern part of the
country.  So instead of leaving Wednesday morning, we left Friday morning.

The Caretaker was wonderful to work with.  I found him to be conscientious, and proud of Casa Punta Banco.  I thought that he went out of his way to be helpful to us.  He took us on a forest walk, took the girls on a horse ride through the forest, brought us fruit that he picked up from friends, and caught four huge lobsters for our final dinner (!).  We invited him to stay with us should he ever come to the U.S.   Flori (Housekeeper/Cook) was also wonderful and made us feel welcome.  She brought extra fruit from home to make our daily fruit drinks, made wonderful meals, and offered to go into Punta Banco to buy the supplies to make a local remedy for Theresa's illness (a cinnamon drink, and an electrolyte drink).  We invited the caretaker and Flori to our meals, and enjoyed talking with them - a slow process, given our Spanish skills, though they were patient.   

All in all, it was a wonderful experience that we will always remember. Thank you for opening your home to us, and thank you for your willingness to share this pristine part of the world.  We have friends who are also interested in an experience like this, and we plan to recommend that they consider Casa Punta Banco.

Dave Wondra

 

Debby,
Our trip to Costa Rica was totally awesome. We had a wonderful time and literally everything went according to plan -- even the weather (not too much rain; Arenal volcano visible part of the time; sunny part of every day at Punta Banco...) and the wildlife (I can't begin to list the animals, birds, reptiles,...that we saw) cooperated.

Casa Punta Banco is as wonderful as you described!  We loved it and had a wonderful time there. The house is great. We spent every evening on the upstairs porch watching first the sunset and then the moonrise, stars, storms on the Osa.... On our first day there, we saw 11 howlers in the tree by the path in front, 10+ white face capuchins at the back of the house by the upstairs porch, a troop of squirrel monkeys by the path to the beach and a spider monkey (the elusive brown monkey?) on the roof outside the back bedroom upstairs. During the week we also saw 4 coatis, many many birds, frogs, but only one snake (non-poisonous) thankfully. We tried to find sea turtles but were frustrated in that attempt (perhaps the unusually high tides and rough seas (there had been a big storm at sea) had something to do with it).
Flori and the caretaker were wonderful. The Caretaker went out of his way to make us welcome, to point out wildlife, suggest places to go, and helped us arrange a guide at Tiskita Lodge one day, and he couldn't have been more patient with our halting attempts to communicate in our very bad Spanish. He is also keeping the house system functioning quite well (we had plenty of electricity, hot water,...). Flori is a unobtrusive as you described and did a wonderful job of keeping the place clean, bug-free, as well as doing laundry, and cooking several delicious meals for us. I only wish that we had more Spanish so that we might have got to know them both a little better.

We also had a massage with Greg which was wonderful -- he is awfully nice.  Your guide book was extremely helpful, both in orienting us before arrival, getting us there, and as well as providing us will useful information throughout our stay. I know how much work must have gone into all three booklets, and they made our stay much more pleasant and fun. We also enjoyed your down-to-earth, practical writing style.  THANK YOU!

Christopher and Vicki

 

Debby,

Just got your check back for the deposit. Thank you. We had a great time during our trip. Your house is FANTASTIC, and we will think about returning when our kids are a bit older.

If you would like to use me for a reference, feel free.

David

 

Tell us about your experience at Casa Punta Banco

Tell us about your stay

Contact Us for Availibility