Casa Gardenia Mabuhay - A Boutique Jungle Home

The house was comfortable and beautiful. However, the location was very poor. It is next to a major highway, leading to high noise levels for truck air brakes through the day and night. In addition, it is right next to a small farm that had a rooster that began crowing about 3:30am. Also, there were dog kennels close so lots of barking morning and night. No good chances for wildlife viewing. So unfortunate.

We really wanted to love this house and thought it was going to be the highlight of our 3 week trip this stay but sadly it wasn’t. I am just trying to provide an honest assessment so I will list the pros and cons. Allow me to preface this by saying that we have both travelled through Costa Rica on multiple occasions through the various cantons of CR with the exception of the Caribbean side of the country. Pros: - Pretty house exactly as pictured. - Decently sized and could potentially sleep 6. - Nice fridge with ice maker and water source. - Amentities for cooking. - Easy access to the highway. - Able to explore the finca? - Proximity to Nauyaca falls. - Fruit stands and mini super a short drive away. - Laundry available. - Feels private. Cons: - The bedroom adjacent to the master was infested with bugs (100s). - Both with large carpenter ants and a hoard of 1/2 inch sized wasp like flying insect that ended up stinging my wife multiple times on the 5th night of our stay in the master bedroom (not where the infestation was). We kept the door closed to the infested bedroom our entire stay and at night they were still in the halls and appeared to be nesting in the ceiling. These bugs were all over the beds, walls, floors and it was clear that no one was going to be able to use this bedroom. The house needs an exterminator to professionally handle the situation. We’ve stayed in a dozen places in CR and never had an experience like this. We notified the owner on the situation multiple times. The situation was not handled well and it took 3 days to get the caretaker to spray inside the house despite sending pictures. Moving on… - The house is very close to the highway which is steeply hilled. When large trucks traverse the highway they are often engine braking so the sound can be quite loud. This starts as early as 5-6 in the morning and lasts until 11:30pm. It isn’t constant but happens every 15 to 30 minutes at a minimum. - Beds are old spring beds that should be replaced (master) - There were no shades or curtains in the master bedroom and sun was in by 5am. - Lastly is that the property is on the wrong side of the mountain and not at enough elevation to really be cool. Inside It got very warm and humid in the “winter” (May-December) and the ceiling fans didn’t help. The house was probably running mid 80 degrees F in the day and mid to high 70s at night.