6/10
Before everything I want to be clear that the property manager that lives on site-Adilia, is so nice and wonderful!
With that being said, this property was equal parts fantastic & a nightmare.
We stayed for 5 nights, & split it between 12 people. 3 of us checked in with the rest of our party coming in later at night. We were greeted by Adilia who showed us the whole property. She showed us the entire house, the security room and how to work the gate and intercom, the bungalow, the pool, and all of the common areas. It's a huge, gorgeous property. She was also able to connect me with a wonderful local chef who was also familiar with the property, as well as a neighbor who was happy to pick up my aunt at the airport for a flat rate.
Everyone got their own room/ bathroom. The two kitchens, the pool, the yoga/workout area, and the games/books are great. It's a reasonably priced property where we could all be together and bond.
The negatives :
-wildlife noise in the morning (slightly expected, but unless you can sleep through sirens bring ear plugs because it gets LOUD at 5am)
-some windows don't have screens (bug entrance), some doors don't have locks
-not all windows (one of the rooms in the bungalows) have curtains, so sleeping in despite a red eye is not an option.
-bugs EVERYWHERE. I expect it in the jungle. At the beginning of rainy season. I did not expect having to check every room at night after going out all day for insects to clean out. I mean dozens and dozens of dying beetles, hoards of ants (which came for the beetles and completely covered an entire room that had 0 food in it as we kept it all in the fridge), and all kinds of spiders. Even after night 2 when we asked Adilia to clear the rooms of insects before we got back from being out we would STILL have to get rid of a lot of insects ourselves, to the point where we were sweeping ants up.
The place is very 'eco friendly' and there are notes in every room requesting you call the property manager for removal rather than offing it. It's not enough. They don't use eco friendly bug repellent. We had to move a bed because something kept going #2 on the pillows from where it was on the wall. Adilia is great but the owner clearly doesn't care about the actual comfort and cleanliness for guests.
There's someone famous tangentially related to the house too. That's cool. It would have been nice to get a warning that crazy fans might come by in the night. And some couldn't lock our doors.
Jasha B.
Estada de 5 nits (abr. 2022)