Cindy Southgate's Travels

February 20

We were up early today to take a short birding tour with Kevin. We met him at 6 am and headed down the road to a short trail near the main building. We only saw a few birds and unfortunately Kevin wasn’t as good at taking cell phone pictures through his scope as other guides that we’ve had.

The Variable Seed-eater is a small black bird with a white collar and belly. We found him hopping on a log. Cherrie’s Tanager is about 15 cm long and is endemic to Costa Rica and western Panama. The Clay-coloured Thrush is a bit bigger at 23 cm. It is often seen jumping around on the ground. It is Costa Rica’s national bird – chosen because of its melodic whistle.

Just after breakfast there was some excitement – Mike and the manager saw a Tayra up on the platform where the staff had placed some fruit. Everyone ran to see it. I was able to get this shot while it was running off. This was one of the animals I was hoping to see on this trip. Tayras are fairly large at about 1.10 metres long. They resemble Weasels but have longer legs.

A few days earlier I had arranged for a driver to take us to El Castillo which would be our home for the next 3 days. It is an adult only luxury boutique hotel .

Our driver picked us up at 9 am. It was only an hour and a half drive, so we got there before lunch. Our driver wasn’t familiar with this hotel so we got lost briefly. He eventually found the right turn-off which took us up a steep and rough road.

The view upon entering the building is stunning. The infinity pool beckons with its view of the ocean. The lobby is beautifully decorated with touches of soft teal. This resort is normally above our budget but I had taken advantage of one of their early booking offers. By prepaying we saved 30% off the regular room price.

I had planned an excursion for the day and was planning to store our luggage at the hotel and then check into our room when we returned. When we arrived we discovered that the tours I had booked didn’t include transportation. Because we didn’t have a car, that meant adding on at least $50 to the cost of the tours, which were already expensive. We decided to skip them and just do our own thing.

The woman checking us in said we were too early to get our room. She took us on a tour and then led us down the stairs to our suite. She unlocked the door and let us in.

El Castillo has seven rooms available. Most of them are on the top floor of the main building, but the two Spa Suites are down a set of stairs with a hot tub between them.

The room was gorgeous. We had a big picture window facing the ocean and sliding doors on the deck. The room was very large and beautifully decorated. The only problem we had with the room was that it got extremely hot and the air conditioning wasn’t strong enough to cool the entire space. They brought us a standing fan which we angled toward the bed and that made it much more comfortable.

The view out the window is hard to beat…..

We did a bit of unpacking and then headed up to the pool for lunch. We both chose a Pina Colada as our free welcome drink – mine with alcohol and Mike’s without. There was always flavoured water available at the bar as well. We shared a yummy club sandwich for lunch.

It was now time to relax with our books and hang out in the pool. We enjoyed watching from the ledge of the infinity pool as the view changed. There were very large sand bars quite far from shore which appeared and almost disappeared with the changing tides.

It was sometimes challenging to find a spot out of the sun. The sail-like roof had spaces between them so later in the day we chose a chair under an umbrella. There was usually soft music playing from a boombox in the lobby and it was perfect for relaxing.

Later in the afternoon Mike had gone down to the room to get something. While he was gone two of the women working there came running over to me, all excited. They asked if I wanted to see some Capuchin Monkeys. I followed them out to the front of the building. It was funny to see them as excited as the tourists. They were taking pictures too. A couple of the monkeys had infants with them.

As well as many pictures, I was able to get some videos of the monkeys……

While enjoying the view from the pool we saw Charlie out for a stroll. Not knowing he had a name, Mike called him Jackson because we first noticed him on a stone wall.

I’m assuming this hotel used to be a rich person’s house. The ground floor had some separate rooms that the hotel was now using for dining. It was tough to choose where to eat because they were all very attractive, but the outdoor seating won.

Even though only two other couples showed up for dinner, we were told to make a reservation. We sat down at 5:30 and enjoyed the sunset while we ate dinner.

There were several things on the menu that sounded good. Mike chose the risotto, which he found too garlicky. Other than that, all the food here was very good. I had the arrachara, which was like fajitas but without the steak cut up. The waiters seemed new. They were slow to refill our water glasses but other than that they seemed to be trying hard to be polite and professional.

After dinner we headed down the stairs to our room. During our stay there were only people in the other suite for one night. It had cooled off a bit so we sat in the hot tub before heading to bed.