Iguana Lodge activities & tours

Great adventuring and exploring is offered down here in the Osa.  Experienced guides, many with biology backgrounds, can provide you with more information about this rainforest than you ever dreamed.  High impact, low impact, wild and crazy, or  a comfortable stroll...there are many ways to see and experience the Osa.  Tours are generally private and the guides are working to please you. Everyone can enjoy the Osa. Look through our tour book and sit down with us to let us know your interests; we can help you choose and arrange everything. 

Here are a number of the exciting adventures you can do during your stay at the Iguana Lodge:

Jungle Tours
The Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce:

Jungle Hiking 

There is nothing quite like hiking through a primary forest...with monkeys and big cats, sloths, anteaters, and birds of all kinds.  There are paths through this area that are unbelievably pristine and wild.   Combine that with some waterfall repelling or cave exploration and you have quite an exciting day. Many different tour companies, as well as local taxi drivers, offer a variety of hikes and tours through this magnificent jungle.  Some companies even guarantee sighting of monkeys...we have four kinds here in the Osa: the Cara Blanca (white face monkey), the Colorado (spider monkey), the comical Tse Tse (squirrel monkey) and the boisterous Black Howler monkey called the Congo.

Macaw parrots abound in this area along with Toucans, Giant Iguanas, Sloths, Poison Dart Frog and others. Giant trees and plants look like they are from another planet, not to mention the most bizarre insects you will ever see. Camera buffs should bring long lens and fast film as the lighting inside the forest is low. Tours vary in price, but the average is $40-50 with lunch provided.

Bird Watching
What To Spot The Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce

Bird Watching -  Serious birders know that Neo-tropical migrants journey south from their North American breeding grounds in the fall months September thru November. Species such as Warblers, Flycatchers, Thrushes, Orioles and Tanagers swell in multitude during these months.

Many long distance migrants pass at least half the year here and can be viewed not as northern birds escaping winters chill, but as tropical birds who go north to breed. The northward exodus begins in March and continues with greater intensity into May. Even so, you are able to encounter resident species of the tropics all year long.

A few of our native birds include: Trogans, Antbirds, Woodcreepers, Toucans, and an vast population of Amazon Parrots and Scarlet Macaws. Still an amazing site is the daily display of numerous Scarlet Macaws flying around the town of Puerto Jimenez.

Bird watching tours can easily arranged, and walking around the Lodge often provides plenty of photo opportunities for bird lovers. Tours can also be arranged targeting your particular interests (i.e. Birds of Prey, Shorebirds, Songbirds, Old Growth Dependants, or Exotics.)

The best time of day is early morning or late afternoon. Normally, the tours will last around 4 hours but we can customize a tour for you if you wish. Tours generally run around $35 per person.

Two of the best tours for fabulous birdwatching...include traveling in a boat up the pristine Rio Esquinas with a native English-speaking guide...at last count 55 species were spotted in one day ($200 for up to four people); and taking a horseback trip into the primary forest ($50 per person with lunch provided.)

The Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce

Offshore big game is the specialty in the area with sailfish being the most predominant species. We practice catch and release for billfish so bring your camera and lots of film. The high season for offshore is our summer which starts in December and lasts through May. Calm seas and short runs to the fishing grounds are typical this time of year. We normally catch several sails a day along with Dorado, Tuna, Blue Runner, Wahoo, Skipjack and Bonito. The month of May is when the rains begin, usually in the afternoons. This is when the bigger schools of Yellowfin Tuna and Dorado move in along with the giant Black and Blue Marlin! Sailfish are still around but not in quantity. Up until September weather is reasonably calm with some rain but little wind. 

Last season our guests the Pagliucas found themselves catching more sailfish than they ever dreamed, while amidst a pod of about 50 humpback whales... manta rays and dolphins were leaping out of the water...not bad eh? 

Jimbo, another favorite guest, (pictured above with large rooster fish before he fell off the boat) and other guests from Florida's fishing areas tell us that their fishing trip was "... the best fishing

HALF DAY SPECIAL :

Local reefs and points  4½ hours - leave 6:30 a.m. and return at 11:00 a.m.. Target species are Rooster Fish, Jack Crevelle, Sierra Mackerel and Reef Snapper. Around $100 for the boat.

FULL DAY :

Outside Pacific currents 8 Hours - leave at 6:30 a.m. and return at 3:30 p.m.. Primary target species are Sailfish, Dorado, Tuna and Marlin. (We don't run these tours, but there are Great fishing companies here in the Gulf and we can arrange tours easily for you.) The fleet of boats are new 1999 27-foot "Ocean Master" boats; custom rigged by Caribe yachts of Stuart, Florida. Lunch and soft drinks are provided.  This is deep sea fishing, the price: $500

Swimming with Wild Dolphins in the Golfo Dulce

A fabulous exciting adventure where you and your friends head out into the Golfo Dulce with George, an experienced seaman, who locates one of several pods of dolphins that live in the Gulf.  After that, the party's on.  George will tow you behind his boat at the same speed as the frolicking dolphins with his special equipment.  You can dive down deep with the dolphins as they twirl around you...no kidding!  You wear a mask so you can easily see them swimming all around you.  Recently, our kids went out and although they didn't find dolphins to swim with...they very much enjoyed swimming with the largest shark in the world, called a whaleshark, which happens also to be harmless. Some of our guests have had such a good time, they went more than once and had a great time both times.  
The boat can take up to 6 people and costs $200

Tree Climbing and Waterfall Repelling

Experience the adrenaline rush of ascending into the canopy via ropes and pulleys to enjoy a view from a most spectacular height...or repelling along side (or right down through) a jungle waterfall.  Or climb up inside a huge Matapalo tree and ring then bell...then repel down.  There are various folks that can take you with them for a truly grand adventure...prices range from $35 to $75 per person. You will often see a myriad of wildlife along the way. Your master guide will provide all the equipment. 

All experience levels can participate...our daughter did this when she was 10.  We recently had one of our favorite guests, 'Dan the Man', at age 81 repelling down a series of four waterfalls, with his guide who is a captain on the Rainbow Warrior for Greenpeace.  Our guests unanimously rate this particular tour a "10". 

Gold Panning in the Osa

No kidding, it's real gold! The Osa Peninsula is famous for its gold. Before they designated the Corcovado area into a National Park, many families were gold miners...and making a pretty good living at it too. Our chef and his family brought out huge nuggets, they say as big as fists.  Now the gold mining is shut down in the park but gold mining continues.

So head up to Dos Brazos where you can meet the local gold miners and the lady who runs the pulperia.  She has a scale and the little kids run to buy eggs and milk with gold.

There are several organized tours that can get you gold mining. And some even guarantee you will find some.   A local tour company describes their tour below:   Come find some gold with us in one of the many gold bearing creeks and rivers of the Osa Peninsula. Finding gold nuggets like these takes work but you will have an opportunity buy some from the locals. Upon your arrival to the site, you will be provided a pan and lessons on how to wash the material. You keep what you find! This is a half day tour with snacks. $40 per person

Riding Horses through the Primary Forest 

There are a variety of great horseback rides around the Osa. Our personal favorite is a fabulous ride through gorgeous primary forest, a lunch stop at a local Tica house, and down the river to see how many shades of green there really are in this jungle.  Recently guests spotted 3 types of monkeys, a sloth, anteater, toucans and numerous exotic birds on this great primordial  adventure.  Tour runs $50 per person

You can also gallop down our endless beach with a great guide named Luis who brings the horses right here to the Lodge.   
Minimum of $18 per person for a two hour romp. 

The Orchid Tour Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce

The trip begins at the docks of Puerto Jimenez where you head across the Golfo Dulce searching for dolphins, turtles whales and whale sharks.  You will travel by boat north through the Gulf to a remote palm studded beach, only accessible by boat; go ashore and visit the fantastic botanical garden and farm of Casa Orquideas. 

At Casa Orchideas meet Ron and Trudy MacAllister (and possibly their children) who have lived here for over 20 years.  Self taught botanists, Ron and Trudy escort you through their magnificent gardens and farm that will spotlight the incredible diversity of tropical plants.

Their gardens and farm sit in the spectacular back drop of  high hills and primary forest that rise from the Golfo Dulce.

The two to three hour tour covers an amazing array of plants and topics from the wide variety of orchids, heliconias, bromeliads, palms, to the practical and useful plants such as vegetables, fruits, spices, and medicinal plants to the unusual such as miracle fruit, the gourd tree, and the  cannonball tree.

This is not just a looking at the "flowers" tour. Touch, taste and smell the plants and fruits When you come across the Ylang-ylang we will instantly recognize the famous scent of Channel #5 and a base for numerous perfumes...(we have some trees flowering at the lodge...que rico). There is nothing like the fresh smell of vanilla beans or ginger root. You will get to taste some of the unusual exotic fruits such as star fruit, the sweet pulp around the chocolate seeds,  and the pulp around the magic seed which transforms the taste of lemons from sour to sweet.

This is truly a fascinating tour.  You will learn about the unique and various ways tropical plants compete and reproduce.   No one will forget the pelican flower with its labyrinth passageways that will trap insects for several days and then release them, all in the pursuit of reproduction.  

Recently we had a guest return with his wife from Casa Orquideas.  Although he expected merely to indulge his wife and accompany her, he told us that it was the best tour of his entire stay. 

We highly recommend this is a half day tour.  If you are interested in an all day trip we recommend combining this tour  with the pristine Rio Esquinas Tour.

Price : Casa Orquideas Tour is $5.00 per person (what a deal!), but does not include round trip boat transportation which varies depending on the number of people  (price is  approximately $100 to hire  boat).

Massages down here in Paradise

There are a variety of massages available down here in the Osa.  Masseuses come right out to the Iguana Lodge and set their tables right up on your private decks.  So imagine...a little before sunset, after having hiked around the jungle, settling down on your veranda with an iced tea or glass of wine, a few candles and your private masseuse.  (As you can tell...we have it pretty hard down here in paradise.)   From DEEP body work (I can tell you it was deep) to shiatsu and Swedish, along with the occasional acupuncture treatment or genuine sports massage, we are not missing anything down here in the jungle.  We also can provide relaxing manicures, pedicures...and would you believe mud mask treatments with the mud coming from right here on the Peninsula. Most massages run about $40 an hour.