Pacheco Tours — Hotel in Bahía Drake

I am not the type of person that writes negative feedback, but after a daytour to Sirena that felt quite ‘off’ I decided to give some constructive comments. I visited Corcovado (Sirena & San pedrillo) before with two other guides from another company and I wanted to come back for a daytour to show my sister the beautiful jungle and its inhabitants. We decided to choose Pacheco tours this time as they offer a Full day tour Sirena only, without visiting San Pedrillo.

Our guide was William, and the whole tour me and my sister just got the feeling that he didn’t really enjoy his job. He gave very little explanation and when we asked something the answers were rather vague. He kept making cynical jokes about the group being ‘tourists’ for following his lead and not looking out for wildlife by themselves, wich just felt very out of place since all of the people in the group were native to Europe so yeah, we are not in tune with this nature as much as a local is. To me, the jokes caused for a separation between him and the participants, making it a rather awkward experience.

I completely understand that a daytour offers limited time, but having some experience with other guides I can honestly say that time was not the issue here, the lack of motivation seemed more to be the problem. William carried around his telescope but only took it out maybe four times for some birds, because monkeys where ‘too much of a hassle’ (although some of them were just chilling in trees).

Because of the lack of explanations, the group was not really engaged into the experience. Sometimes, William would leave us alone for five to ten minutes whilst looking for animals (without succes), causing the group to act out. People where trying to feed the coati’s and started to randomly pick leaves to lure them. The lack of respect towards nature is of course not William’s fault, but it felt to me like people were just bored and ignorant because of the lack of information.

I also didn’t like the fact that he made cynical jokes about Corcovado having soooo many rules, and then pulling food out of his bag because he was hungry. Cutting with a knife into a tree to show the sap also felt very disrespectful to nature, especially because other guides taught me that his is actually killing the tree in the long term. He ended his tour by saying that one day is not enough and that you should opt for a minimum of two days. Although I do agree on that one, having showed himself as a rather unfriendly and unmotivated guide, I would never opt for an overnight tour with him.

I feel quite bad to actually write this review, since overall I am a very positive person and I always try to look for the best in everything and everyone. But I was just so excited to show my sister the park, and I feel quite dissapointed by the experience. Maybe William just had a bad day, I hope other people had better...

Drake Bay is an interesting spot as far as accommodations because there is not a whole lot of middle ground. There are some very high end Eco-Lodges that run several hundred dollars or more a night, and then much more bargain options like Pacheco Tours and Cabins. All in all the accommodations at Pacheco are clean, well serviced, and have great views. They have an arrangement with a hotel down the main street where there is a good breakfast included in your stay every morning, and the owners live onsite which makes for overall good service.

To be clear on the room accommodations, they are very clean but also very simple. In our cabin the main bed was on the floor, the shower had one of the instant shower head water heaters, and there is no television. Personally I did not have any issue with these as we were in Drake Bay to be outside, however my fiance is a little more discerning when it comes to accommodations. The only thing I personally did not like about the room was the fact that there was no comforter, just a single sheet which made getting to a comfortable temperature at night a little more difficult. All that being said the value for what you get at Pacheco is very high so it is a spot I would recommend for those looking for a quality but basic accommodations with a great view.

The only knock I am giving on this review is due to the snorkeling tour we took with Pacheco and how they handled it. We booked the tour the day before we were set to leave and confirmed with the owner that we would be taking the afternoon taxi back to Sierpe. All was good with the tour at the start, however when we landed at the Isla Cano, they let part of the group go hiking on their own and one of that group ended up getting lost. Long story short we ended up sitting at the ranger station for over an hour past when we were supposed to be there, had to get on another boat to get back, did not get the lunch we expected, and made the whole day much more stressful. I think it was somewhat bad luck, but think the experience could have been handled...

Corcovado 1 Day Sirena Station

We did the 1 Day Tour to the Sirena Station. This review is on the company Pacheco Tours and especially on our Guide, Erick. It's not about the park and the animals, because nobody can predict nature or force sightings of animals. (However, we have been very lucky - all 4 kinds of monkeys, pekaris with kids, coati, sloth, big crocodile, 5 Tapirs, rare birds, spiders, one boa constrictor/very big snake, bats, butterflys....)

The organisation of the day was good, everything we experienced concerning Ericks colleagues and the overall organisation was fine!! Also the lunch after the tour was well organised (we could choose what we want to eat and drink from a menu in the morning) and also delicious!! (It was at the hotel Corcovado & Drake Inn)

Erick: He is the best guide we could have asked for. He is knowledgeable, talks with passion, encourages us to ask questions, explains everything very good, gives instructions on how to behave around the animals, keeps track of the time to be in schedule, takes care about everybodys wellbeing throughout the tour.... And besides all of that he sprinkles jokes into his story's here and there, it was fun to laugh with him. I loved that he acts responsible around the animals with his tour groups. Especially when the Tapirs were sleeping, he explained to us well before we saw them, that we will go a little closer in pairs and the rest of the group stays some steps away and waits, to not disturb their sleep. We saw other guides taking their whole groups very close surrounding the mother and baby Tapir sleeping, that felt very wrong and disrespectful. All in all it was our very best tour in our 4 weeks in Costa Rica and Ericks passion is so impressing and inspiring!!! He is very hard working and makes it seem easy.

• Thank You Erick, we can only recommend your tour and we hope to be back one day and see you again! Next time we will definitely do a multiple day tour....