It was a wonderful morning with a lovely family – Kurt, Tally, TJ, Tanner, Tom, Laurie and I in the mangroves. We started by creeping up the river, pausing frequently to look at the snakes and birds along the shoreline and flying above us.

We stopped and anchored in an incredibly peaceful part of the river where we could absorb the sights and sounds more fully while eating breakfast and sipping on our coffee.

Throughout the trip we had an amazing time taking pictures, the best of which were

the grey breasted martin,

northern tree boa,

and the green heron.



Guests always comment that they feel they are entering a different world as they glide through the black and red mangroves found in Rio Esquinas observing these species.

Beach Cleanup in Puntarenitas Coinciding with the International Coastal Cleanup

On September 19th all of Nicuesa’s employees joined the Red Cross, Fire Fighters and many other local businesses to remove the growing amount of plastic bottles, Styrofoam and garbage on the island of Puntarenitas. Puntarenitas is located offshore from Golfito, (the closest town to Playa Nicuesa) and we hope to soon make it as pristine as the clean shores that we enjoy at Playa Nicuesa. Nicuesa’s Sustainability Coordinator, who organized the cleanup, also enlisted the help of Terra Nostra – an NGO focused on cleaning up Costa Rica’s rivers and beaches.
The group of around 50 volunteers collected over 7,000 plastic bottles, 5,000 pieces of Styrofoam, 900 bottle caps and much more within the span of only 4 hours. The beach resembled a dump in some places and reminded all those participating of the reasons why the three r’s are encouraged – more than 100,000 marine animals die every year as a result of getting caught in or trying to eat plastic floating in the ocean!
Due to time restraints the group had to call it a day before being able to finish. Thus, Nicuesa along with the community hopes to continue the effort in the near future. Additionally, Nicuesa is also part of the Tourism Chamber of Commerce in Golfito, which aims to clean up the city and educate people how to properly dispose of solid wastes.
September is the international month of beach clean-ups. If you go on the website of the Ocean Conservancy you can find out where there is a clean up close to you or even organize one yourself for the upcoming year!

On September 10th an ICT representative presented Nicuesa with a framed copy of the Certification in Sustainable Tourism with 4 leaves! The employees all celebrated together over a beer, each receiving their own personalized certification recognizing their hard work in achieving this goal. As the heart of Nicuesa has always revolved around sustainability, this is simply an acknowledgment that motivates us to exert more of our energies to become ever more sustainable. Thus, over the past year since we turned in the CST application we have been expanding and improving our conservation efforts as well as involvement in the community. Some of these efforts include:
- Planting of over 70 trees from our Reforestation Center by guests and staff.
- Sponsoring Yaguará, a feline conservation organization, to place cameras on Nicuesa property.
- Collaborating with MarViva, a marine conservation organization, to protect the Golfo Dulce.
- Sponsoring a folkloric dance group composed of adolescents from Puerto Jimenez.
- Providing educational materials and interactive presentations to the three students of Las Animas, the only local school in the Golfo Dulce.
Offering free English classes to all employees, including sponsoring the text books
- Continuing the fight against tuna farms in the mouth of the Golfo Dulce in collaboration with PRETOMA.

These are just a few of our outreach activities. We would love to tell you all about them and even more over a tropical fruit smoothie at Nicuesa!!

Waterfall hike- The Monkeys were on the Monkey Trail

Coming back from the waterfall, walking down the Monkey trail we heard a big noise and the tree branches breaking. We stopped completely and stood quiet paying attention to the forest to realize that it was the jungle mafia, yes the White Face Capuchin Monkeys giving us a warning: “HEY YOU GUYS! This is our territory”.

 Mike and Lisa were captivated by the scout of the group and the troop behavior. These are the smartest monkeys in the Tropical Rainforest, they are opportunists (they eat everything) and they can live up to 45 years. Capuchin Monkeys travel in packs from 6 to 8 males and as Mark and Lisa witness it, they fight to protect their territory.  

Guide: Freiman

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Ocelot

It was around 8:30pm and we were walking near a Castaño tree where you find the fallen tree fruits on the ground making this a meeting place for many mammals (preys and predators) as the White Collar Peccary that feeds from the fruit seeds. We stopped and quietly started looking around and what a unusual surprise I got, right there it was: the Ocelot! So I whispered to Kelly and Kate to let them know about it and we started following it from a very close distance and he didn’t even pay attention to us like if he did not care at all. Then the Ocelot suddenly stopped and turned back, we were just one meter away from him and then it got lost in the vegetation. It was a magical moment and an exciting Night Walk for all of us.

Guide: Freiman

Offset your Carbon Emissions for your flight to Costa Rica and we will greet you with a free Tropical Cocktail!

We would like to offer you an easy way to travel even more responsibly by offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions from your international flight. You can find the tools to help you on our website.

Did you know that climate change has the possibility to change the landscape of the earth and negatively impact magical places like rainforests?  That is why we at Playa Nicuesa are in the process to become a carbon neutral company – we constructed a solar drying room to dry all of our laundry, we use solar panels and a back-up generator that runs on used vegetable oil for all of our electricity and we buy carbon credits for all greenhouse gasses emitted by our operations that we cannot currently eliminate.

You have already made a conscientious choice to vacation at a sustainable eco-lodge and know you can help the planet more. Your international flight will create between 314 and 1,374 Kg of carbon emissions per person depending on where you are flying from. Carbon emissions contribute to climate change which may cause sea level rise, loss of forests and other animal habitat, and a rise in extreme weather events. 

Through our program you can easily offset this impact by helping local reforestation programs and you will be reminded of your contribution with one of our bartender Jonathon's famous tropical cocktails at the lodge as our gift of appreciation! (Wine Enthusiast touted our Caipirum as "Cocktail of the Month"!)

Don’t forget bring or e-mail your receipt that you have offset your flight emissions to Nicuesa! 

Bottled Nose Dolphins

It was 6:15am and we were all in the boat on our way to Río Esquinas and a group of eight Bottled Nosed Dolphins were playing and jumping off the water.
These dolphins are the most common ones in the Golfo Dulce and they are very smart mammals, they hunt in groups surrounding their prey from the bottom to the surface and leaving them no option but jump off the water.

These dolphins can swim as fast as 35 km/h (21 knots) and they need to come out to the surface so they can breathe.