Punta Agujitas Viewpoint

"We had an amazing experience on the night tour with Emilio. We saw many more animals than expected, had a great adventure and learned a lot. The family seem to be doing great conservation work and it was lovely to see their farm. It was raining a lot when we went on the tour, but this didn't spoil it at all, and only added to the experience! Highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting to see wildlife and get a taste of the rainforest with information from very knowledgeable locals"

Jo Giblin

"My stay here was incredible. The farm is surrounded by primary forest and the opportunity to see all kinds of amazing animals like toucans and tapirs. I highly recommend doing the night tour as that’s when you can see the most animals, especially guided by Elmer or Emilio as they have a well trained eye for spotting them. Their hospitality was wonderful and they made me feel right at home :) I’ll never forget my time there, it’s an incredibly special place filled with incredibly special people. The accommodations are rustic but they will help you get that much closer to nature ;) this is the most authentic Oso Peninsula tour you can do. And rest assured you’re helping a multi-generational family farm maintain their way of life and manage the surrounding forest with so much love. Expect to get wet, sweaty, and up close & personal with animals that you may never see again. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!"

Alleaha Javed

"A mixed bag for serious naturalists/birders, but Elmer is a hero for making this especially good jungle camp experience (not to mention his five-star cooking) available on a backpacker budget, and I believe he and his brother are doing good conservation work. It would get five stars from me if the pack of dogs didn't follow us on hikes, which made birdwatching much more difficult (though still worthwhile), and daytime searches for ground animals mostly pointless (Elmer offered to stop them, but gave up almost immediately). Thankfully the dogs are mostly kept closed in at night.

There is one very special feature for wildlife enthusiasts though: This is probably the best low-budget place in Costa Rica to see a tapir - they visit the banana farm around the hostel every night, and though two days wasn't enough for us to get lucky, others did see them, and I saw lots of their footprints.

Experienced naturalists will also be able to find some other cool mammals, reptiles, and amphibians on the property at night.
(The night walk tours are great for beginners, but not recommended for anyone experienced looking for wildlife in the forest at night. We went with a guide who we were told was “the best of the best”, and I found about as many animals as he did. And though he seemed to know his snakes and frogs very well, he casually and badly misidentified several insects and even a bird.)

The hostel is not exactly “right in the jungle”, because it's surrounded by an area planted with bananas and cacao, there is well-preserved forest nearby in every direction (I don't know if it's “primary forest” - there were only a few really big trees even in the most natural parts, though they do have one awesome huge kapok/ceiba tree near the buldings).

Be aware that you'll be more or less camping. They have a cool open-air wooden lodge structure, and some parts are separated as “private rooms”, while the rest of the accommodations except for a couple rustic cabins are literally camping tents (though with mattresses and good shelter from the rain).

Elmer and Wilbur were both very kind, even trying to help point out wildlife for us when we weren't on the tour. And as others have said, Elmer’s cooking is exceptional (though he won't be home from now until December 2024).

Just one more serious issue: The staff needs to listen to guests, and stop telling people that the trails are easy to follow. While we were there one volunteer got lost in the forest at night trying to get to the hostel the first time. Crossing waist-deep flowing water is also no joke, and even as a skilled hiker I couldn't find the route all the way to the waterfall (and we were not warned that the waterfall trail was nearly blocked by fallen trees at two places, or that it was an hours-long round trip). I'm adding the trails to OpenStreetMap though, so you should be able to at least see them on offline map apps soon."

Evan C