Isla Chiquita

Home Away

Isla Chiquita is an island off the southeastern coast of the Nicoya Peninsula, where we spent four days and three nights during our honeymoon. It's a quick five minute ferry hop from the mainland dock and immediately after stepping foot off the boat you feel welcomed like family. Over the days, you get to know the regular staff by name and they get a feel for your personal preferences. We liken it to being on a windjammer cruise. When it came time to leave, we were not ready.

100m, Straight Up

Our tent was at the crest of the hill, and the trek up to it was steep. So steep that it took serious effort to hold on to the rear facing golf cart seat. But the view from our porch made it one of the best tents on the island. Surprisingly good water pressure, too.

Hiking Trail

There's a short hiking trail that takes you around the hotel's side of the island. Along it you may come across some wildlife, get some great views, check out the island's solar power cells, and take a break at the yoga platform at the island hill's apex. We threw the bouquet from our wedding into the sea from this trail. The best spot is saved for the very end, which has a couple chairs and a direct view of the sunset.

Hiking, On The Water

Another amenity provided by the hotel is access to stand up paddle boards and kayaks. Since we were bio-luminescent kayaking later, we opted to stand up paddle. The staff member warned us that the far side of the island would be difficult, but we adventured around anyways. It gave us a view of the local camping spot on the far side of the island, the adjacent nature park island, and we even pulled over and found a few flowers beached from the bouquet we threw the night before! We gave them back to the sea a second time before completing our lap and coming in for lunch.

The Food

One of our goals was to eat ceviche at every place we went to; it is one of Costa Rica's dishes after all. Isla Chiquita's restaurant was the only place not to have it (we did order the "vegan ceviche", it was...food.) Despite this, Isla Chiquita's restaurant was perhaps our favorite of the trip, due in large part to their salsa. The staff started bringing it to us without asking and gifted us a salsa to-go cup for the road. Their bar was where we got addicted to coco locos. Other food highlights were a full lobster, passion fruit chicken, and the very special desert with a show that Miguel gave us on our last night.

The Wildlife

First day, off the porch of our tent, was assembled a family of howler monkeys. We watched them for a short time before heading in to unpack. While we never saw them again, we could hear them howling away constantly. What luck to start our time here off right.

Along the hiking path we could catch flashes of movement that were some species of anole. It would turn into a photo hunt for their excellently camouflaged bodies. One iguana was significantly easier to find and he met us one morning on our walk down to breakfast.

We woke up one morning to a credit-card-sized scorpion pinched between our inner and outer door flaps. We tried to shoo her away but she held fast to her claim to our tent. The staff "removed" her while we went stand up paddling, which we thanked them for in front of some guests checking in to the island. We only saw one other scorpion the whole trip, which crawled out of our backpack missing it's tail. We found the tail a couple days later at the next hotel!

The People

We have thus far listed off all the activities and amenities that make Isla Chaquita fun. But the truth is that our experience was made great by the staff who worked so hard to make it so. Many thanks to Arturo for checking us in and dealing with the alacran, Miguel and Irwin at the restaurant, Diana at breakfast and lunch, the anonymous reina de los coco locos, and everyone else who made the trip so special. While we want to revisit each hotel on our trip, Isla Chiquita was the only one we felt we left too early. If you ever make it to the Puntarenas province of Costa Rica, we suggest taking at least a night or two here. But take a lesson from us and shake your bags before leaving.

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