Before going to Dominical I had also been making enquiries regarding two other trips through my excellent travel agent, Alban Salazar from Costa Rica Travel Advisors. One trip was to the Galapagos, which comes later. The other to Drake Bay which was recommended by my friends Stuart and Jane who had previously spent a month in Costa Rica. Given their outstanding information on sail boat charter trips in Croatia and Turkey, I was confident that it would be worth seeing.
After arriving back on Tuesday afternoon, I confirmed the trip to Drake Bay on the Thursday with a departure date of Tuesday 1 March. As usual, the week in Manuel Antonio disappeared in the blink of an eye...yoga classes, trips to Jaco, reflexology, writing a blog, personal training, out to local live music venues, study and time at the beach are all hard to fit into these, what seem like, very short days.
Quickly it was time to leave for Drake Bay. I did leave on the trip with a little trepidation though. Drake Bay is located on the west coast of the Osa Peninsula . Given the trip my friend and I had to Puerta Jimenez on the east coast of the same peninsula, I was wondering whether the 3 hours I was quoted from Manuel Antonio would be more like 5 hours and how uncomfortable it would be in a minivan, if the roads were anything like we endured for the last 70kms to Puerta Jimenez.
I was pleasantly surprised. The trip was on good roads all the way to Sierpe and took about 2 hours after leaving about 7.30am. We arrived in Sierpe and had a 2 hour wait for the boat trip up the river, which was to take about an hour. This is the only way to get to any of the hotels in Drake Bay as far as I am aware. Anyway our boat was small but there was nothing wrong with the engine. The driver “fanged” it along the river, which was a really pretty trip. Then we went out into the ocean, through a very narrow gap in a couple of large rocks that no sailor would ever attempt to get through with breakers on both sides....eek!....and then across the bay.Drake Bay Wilderness Lodge was at the most southern tip of Bahia Drake. After communication 
problems between driver and passengers due to lack of English and Spanish, the other couple I was riding with were unceremoniously dropped off as close to shore as possible, but still in knee deep water. Based on this I started to prepare myself for my disembarkation. Of course I was in shorts and had my shoes off anyway, so not much to prepare! I laughed as the boat came around the entrance to my hotel to find a tiny jetty where I stepped off, someone took my bag and helped me across the boat. Not a drop of water on me! I love being a girl..:)!
problems between driver and passengers due to lack of English and Spanish, the other couple I was riding with were unceremoniously dropped off as close to shore as possible, but still in knee deep water. Based on this I started to prepare myself for my disembarkation. Of course I was in shorts and had my shoes off anyway, so not much to prepare! I laughed as the boat came around the entrance to my hotel to find a tiny jetty where I stepped off, someone took my bag and helped me across the boat. Not a drop of water on me! I love being a girl..:)!On arrival, I was greeted with a tropical drink and my luggage taken to my room. As the trip had been relatively quick it was only 1.30pm and lunch was still being served. Three courses for lunch in an open air restaurant overlooking the ocean. Perfect! Once again, I was glad I had made the decision and effort to come here. This place is beautiful. Only one thing to fix, I immediately upgraded to an ocean view cabin! I spent the afternoon settling into yet another Costa Rican paradise!
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| View from my first lunch at the Lodge |
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| Crazy Sign as we left Sierpe to head along the river |
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| Ocean View Rooms (3) mine is first one #14 |
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