looking for Pvt Tour Guides for Central America

[joeyanddavid]

For our upcomming adventure ..I am looking to find personal tour guides for the port areas of Puerto Limon, Costa Rica and Colon, Panama.

 

Anyone have any suggestions on leads for these two destinations?

 

as always

[charlielinda]

Look No Further for a Guide in Costa Ria. Oscar & Danny are for you!

Below is a comprehensive post I wrote after our wonderdul day in Puerto Limon. We did not do the zip lining but Oscar could have arranged that for us also.

 

I had contacted Oscar Brown and arranged for a tour for myself and another couple that I had been corresponding with on Cruise Critic. I had mentioned to Oscar that I would try to bring along some others on the tour if anyone showed an interest. He had mentioned he had a van that would hold 10-14 people.

 

By the time we arrived in Costa Rica I had formed a group with a total of 11 people for our tour. I figured the more the merrier and what a wonderful way to meet new friends! We all meet at the gangway early in the morning and were off the ship to met Oscar at the end of the pier. We didn't know that Costa Rica time is different than the ship's time so we were a little early which gave us time to all introduce ourselves and start taking pictures. There were men at the end of the pier who were guides, they were all were very helpful and even called Oscar for us to see how many minutes he was away from the pier.

 

Oscar showed up promptly along with his brother-in-law Danny with two vans. It turned out that Oscar was going to be very busy that day with tours and asked if we would mind going off with Danny in his van; insisting that we would have the same tour and great experience (he was right). Just a note, the van had an ice chest that held sodas and water for anyone that would like one.

 

As we left the pier Danny introduced himself and we were off! We were in Costa Rica on Good Friday, which is a National Holiday so, the government, schools and most of the stores were closed. This also meant that the local beaches were crowded with normal folks having a nice day off from work and school.

 

Our first stop was to visit a small monkey and a sloth at a private home. The fellow that lived in the home showed us the monkey and let us take pictures and presented all the ladies with a beautiful flower. We all tipped him $1 (bring $1's with you in Costa Rica!). We started down another road and were stopped by the local police to check Danny's papers, which were in order. It seems that since it was a holiday the police were out in force.

 

Our next stop was to see another sloth. We were allowed to hold this little lady who was pregnant and have our pictures taken with her. It was great to get upclose and personal with a sloth! We tipped our $1 and were off to the plantation.

 

We all jumped out of the van at the banana plantation and Danny gave us a wonderful talk about the growing cycle of bananas and how they are harvested. It was fascinating. I understand that if the packaging plant had been operating that day we would have been able to go there also.

 

Next we were off to the Tortuguero Canals. We pulled into a small area, which was the jump off point for the canal tour. Oscar was there to greet us and give us all a coin to be able to use the restrooms there. Then all eleven of us boarded a small boat and off we went. I can't remember the boat driver's name, but he was proud of the fact that he had twenty-seven children: 12 with his wife and 15 with other ladies. Two of his grandsons were on board with him, since it was a holiday. The young men proved in be invaluable (and very cute) at spotting an alligator, sloth, termite nests, iguanas and other interesting animals. Ricky and Phillippe who were eight years old did a great job and of course they each got $1 for their help. We also tipped the grandfather but it was the boys who were adorable.

 

Danny was awaiting us when we hopped of the boat and was ready to end the tour. We mentioned that we really would like to have lunch at a Costa Rican restaurant and wanted to go to a grocery store he said sure. It turns out that he had another tour to pick up but said he would figure something out. We ended up running into a cousin of his on the road; Danny told him that he was continuing with us and that was the last we heard of it.

 

At this point we headed up to one of the highest points in the area at a restaurant called El Forno. It was wonderful and we sat out on a covered terrace overlooking town and there was a wonderful Calypso band playing. The service was great and the prices very reasonable. If you go the arroz con polo was great; others had various dishes, including seafood -- everyone had a great meal. They brought out a salsa -- to use with our meals and we all fell in love with it and mentioned in to Danny. Danny told us that we could purchase the salsa at the grocery store along with coffee.

 

While at the restaurant Oscar appeared again to be sure that our group was being well taken care of -- we had a resounding yes for him! We were totally enjoying our day. Oscar came up to me separately and said that since I had gotten so a large group together that my tour was free. Obviously that was a nice surprise but not the reason I put the group together. Of course, I tipped Danny quite nicely.

 

Off to the supermarket we went! We all walked into the one open supermarket like we were on a field trip. Danny helped us with our purchases of salsa and coffee! I started getting hot in the store so went to sit down by the ice cream parlor at the store and spent some time talking with a young woman who was an English student at a local university.

 

During one of my discussions with Danny I discovered that we could have also gone to the Sloth Sanctuary about an hour away (I'm sure this would be an additional charge) if we had wanted to. Just wanted to let you know about this if you are interested.

 

At this point it was about 2:30 and we were beginning to fade in the Costa Rican humidity. We confirmed with Danny that we had seen everything we needed to and decided to head back to the ship.

 

When Danny dropped us off all of us were sorry to see him leave -- we all had to have hugs and get lots of pictures! I can't think of a better way to spend the day in Costa Rica than with Oscar and Danny.

 

I understand that they are trying to start a small business so can use lots of support. Whenever I can use a local tour guide instead of a ship's excursion I do. I found Oscar on the Cruise Critic Board -- I like to support the local economy, I like meeting folks that are proud and knowledgable about their country and I like setting my own schedule. The cost of the tour is $45/person.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them. I highly recommend Oscar and Danny! It's great being able to design your own tour.

 

Oscar's contact information is:

Oscar Cell: 011 506 350 6415

Home number: 011 506 758 1881

E-mail: cbrown@costarricense.cr

[joeyanddavid]

Basketlady

thanks for the reply WOW it sounds like it.. do you think he would be willing to do a very small tour for like 2/4 people?.. we just like to do things more intimate....;).

 

I mean it sounds exactly what I am looking for but just with 2/4 people and a guide/friend type thing.

 

please advise

 

as always you may contact me using this screenname at yahoo..

[charlielinda]

Just contact Oscar and I'm sure he can help you out. Have a wonderful trip.

[joeyanddavid]

Just contact Oscar and I'm sure he can help you out. Have a wonderful trip.

 

Thanks BL

[scootercruzer]

Please consider contacting Charlie Soto who runs “OKeyDokey Tours” in Costa Rica. You can read my more detailed report about our fantastic day with Charlie on this thread. You can reach Charlie at okeydokeytours@hotmail.com.

[Driftwoodgal]

I second and third that Oscar will give you the tour of a life time. I have to thank Basketlady for her post on the old threads that led us to Oscar. He is an amazing man that loves to show off his country.

 

I was so impressed that he waited on us when our ship was late getting to Puerto Limon. He did have another couple that were on the Brilliance that docked before us, but true to his word he was there waiting on us even if we were late.

 

I already have him reserved for our Meet and Mingle Group in January 2006. I am glad to see that he is expanding as some of our cruisers might want to do different things. If you use his company you will be talking about your day in Puerto Limon for ages.

 

As for Colon Panama, we stayed on the ship. How often do you get to experience such a wonderful view as the locks.

 

Hope you have a great cruise. Good luck.