A tent camp in Costa Rica. Not quite ‘glamping’!

Ok, I was game to stay at a tent camp in Costa Rica. But, I think I’ve been reading too many blogs and looking at too much Pinterest. My family went to Costa Rica over the Christmas holidays and part of that adventure was a three night stay at a tent camp. In my mind, we would be glamping. You know, glamorous camping. Ummmmmm, not so much! Don’t get me wrong, The Corcovado Tent Camp didn’t oversell. My mind did! How else would I even know the term ‘glamping’!

Here was our chandelier:

Our Chandelier

Not quite what I was expecting but I hit a point where I was just so thankful that we had this. However, my imagined ‘glamping’ image totally dissipated when I saw the light bulb. Eco friendly, none the less! We also learned really fast that you do NOT leave the light on a second longer than necessary in the dark. In the middle of the forest in Costa Rica. Can you say bugs?!?! Attracted to light. Our friends had to relocate to a different tent because they were invaded. In the middle of the night. In a torrential rainfall.

And we were told about the cool breeze that would be gently blowing through the tent each night. Hey, we could live without air conditioning if there was a cool ocean breeze! Ummmmm, is that why we get only a sheet as a blanket? That wasn’t boding well for a cool night breeze. I was suspicious of the reality to come when I saw the contents of the tent.

The interior of the tent.

We each had a sheet and a clean white towel. And we were so thankful for the one clean white towel we each had. And, it was changed every single day!

Boy, does it ever rain there at night! It was the heaviest downpour I’ve ever experienced. Then I had to go to the bathroom. In the middle of the night. While in a tent. About 150 yards to the common facilities. In a torrential downpour. In the dark.

Toilet and shower building.

So what did I do? Well, I waited. Because it had to ease up, didn’t it? Well, then it poured harder. And then harder. So, I didn’t sleep most of the night because I had to go to the bathroom and it was pouring. In hindsight, I really should have just pretended I was a guy. I certainly would have had more sleep that night :).

Oh and the cool breeze? It was quite wet. More a warm wet mist that passed into our tent. Frequently. Then we had the dripping that started because of the torrential down pour. My husband and I figured out that the drips on your feet and legs were not nearly as annoying as on your face so we flipped our heads to the part of the bed where our sandy feet had been. Yes, finally we got a little sleep!

Good thing Costa Rican coffee is good. And strong! We were off on our first adventure early the next morning. But, I’ll share that with you another time. Let me share a little more about our tent camp compound.

We did have beds. The mattresses were clean (I looked) and so were the linens. The food we were served was good. Most of us liked it! Even the picky eaters ate what they could It wasn’t like you had much of a choice. They served you and you ate it. No snacks available and no real alternatives unless you told them ahead of time no fish. But there were drinks :). And that’s were I tried my first Costa Rican beer. I had more than one. But not too late at night. Because I didn’t want to make the trek to the facilities in the middle of the night.

Imperial beer.

Our dining facility. Where we hung out every evening.

We were the second tent in. Tent #10.

Fortunately, we did have real toilets. They just weren’t super close. And I refused to change the rolls for everyone so the rolls stayed on the back of the tank.

We had showers. Unfortunately, no one told me until the last day which shower had the heated water. My first couple of showers were quite ‘refreshing’!

Here’s the part people are surprised by. I really liked it! It was an adventure! Hearing about the lady who got stung by the scorpion reminded us to check our shoes. A boa constrictor had apparently toured our tent camp a few days prior. Oh well, we were in his world. He did no harm. We were in the middle of nature. A full hour boat ride from the nearest town. When someone yelled ‘snake’ everyone ran to see it. Not away. It was a different environment, a different experience. It took us out of our comfort zone and made us appreciate the real beauty of Cosa Rica.

View from our tent.

I do have to share that I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there were Christmas trees everywhere in Costa Rica. I have always celebrated Christmas in cold weather with snow (unless it is a fluke year). Seemed weird to see a Christmas tree when it was over 90F and humid. Very humid. Very hot. Here was our Christmas tree in a little garbage can :).

The Christmas tree

So my dear friends, that’s why I didn’t write any posts for my blog the past couple of weeks. I was off the grid. Totally. We woke up to the conch blowing loudly. It got light every day at 5:30am. It got dark every day at 5:30pm. We lived it. If we were away from the camp and it started looking like this picture below, we knew we had to hurry. It was getting dark and there wasn’t anything resembling street lights. When it got dark, it got dark.

The sun starting to set.

Three days and three tenting nights. A different, wonderful experience. A learning experience for my whole family. Especially my boys. Make sure you come back soon to hear about a few more of our Costa Rican experiences!