Costa Rica, Osa Peninsula - Wild and full of wildlife. Pura Vida!
The Osa Peninsula is one of Costa Rica’s best destinations for an authentic nature & wildlife experience. One of the most untouched areas of Costa Rica is the Osa Peninsula, in the SW part of the country, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the west and Golfo Dulce to the East. Corcovado National Park (CNP) is the star attraction of the Osa Peninsula and the best place to spot wildlife in Costa Rica. CNP protects varied tropical ecosystems and is famous for its wildlife. National Geographic has called CNP the most biologically intense place on Earth, its wildlife includes scarlet macaws, tapirs, jaguars, anteaters, four species of sea turtles, American crocodiles along Rio Sirena, howler monkeys, and squirrel monkeys, among its 140 mammal species, 370 bird species and over 10,000 insect species.
CNP is designed to be explored on foot. Hiking trails follow coastal and inland routes through habitats ranging from Pacific beaches and mangrove swamps to rainforests. To be able to hike through the park, you must be accompanied by a certified guide. CNP’s main destination is Sirena Ranger Station, a rustic lodge located halfway down the Osa Peninsula. Surrounded by virgin rainforest, this remote outpost is arguably the best place to see wildlife, such as boisterous monkeys and sleepy sloths, noisy parrots, and flashy toucans in Costa Rica. Visitors arrive on foot, by boat, or by plane for both day and overnight trips.
There are four ranger stations in CNP, Sirena, San Pedrillo, Los Patos, and La Leona. After Sirena, the most popular choice for hiking is San Pedrillo. You can choose between a day hike or an overnight tour to spend the night at CNP. San Pedrillo has diverse plants and trees. Los Patos is all about primary and cloud forests and is the longest hike out of the four. La Leona has a little of everything the forest offers. From the Pacific shores or the Gulfo Dulce, depending on the time of year, you can spot humpback whales and/or dolphins.
A few CNP tips;
Bring some sturdy hiking gear, aqua shoes, rashguard, raincoat, a dry bag, waterproof camera, insect repellent, hat, sunscreen with high SPF, and headlight or flashlight for the night tours. When hiking during the day, remember to reapply sunscreen. And then reapply. And then reapply.
Stay hydrated. CNP is just north of the equator, so you’ll need more water than you’re used to drinking. Take extra water!
Research the climate and temperatures for the time of year you may visit.
Keep in mind that moisture is the enemy of electronics. Even if you don’t drop your camera directly into the ocean, it's still susceptible to damage from the rainforest’s humidity. If you plan to bring any photography equipment or other expensive items, it’s worth it to spring for a ziplock bag to store it in when not in use. As for cell phones, they fit well in most sandwich bags.
You’ll encounter bugs while on the Osa Peninsula. You are a guest here, the bugs live here. I don’t like bugs, but you can’t avoid these rainforest residents. Keep all food wrapped and stored. Otherwise, you’ll have a new bunch of friends checking out your food. If you’re an entomologist or a bug lover, you’ll get a kick out of what happens when you leave food exposed overnight.
How to Get to the Osa Peninsula
From San Jose, you can reach the Osa in 6 hours by car. (The only road that goes all the way to Drake Bay is rough and a 4x4 is a necessity. Even in the dry season, you’ll likely have to do a few river crossings). Or hours longer if you try taking the combinations of buses/public transports/colectivos (Costa Rico’s version of taxis). You can also take a flight from SJO to Drake Bay or Puerto Jiménez. There’s another way to get there, see below for how we got to the Osa.
How to Get to Sirena Ranger Station
Once at the Osa, the easiest way to get to Sirena is from the nearby village of Drake Bay, a remote community that is the last bit of civilization before the land turns to a thick jungle. From Drake Bay, the easiest way to Sirena is by boat. For the most serious of hikers, a trail south of Drake Bay leads to CNP, first to San Pedrillo Ranger Station, then several miles later, to Sirena Ranger Station. This is an extremely difficult hike along steamy, sun-soaked beaches and across rivers.
Where to Stay in the Osa Peninsula
You won’t find any brand-name hotel chains, but there are lots of lodges, which will fit about any budget. We stayed at Hotel Jinetes de Osa in Drake Bay, El Remanso Lodge at the furthest southern part of CNP and Cabinas Jiménez in Puerto Jiménez.
What We Did in the Osa Peninsula
After landing in San Jose, we flew to Palmar Sur and took a cab to the town of Sierpe. We had lunch at Marisqueria, which was right on the river, and had a dock for the taxi boats that take people to their lodges in Drake Bay. There isn’t dry storage for your luggage on these boats. Our luggage stayed dry but if it would have rained or if we encountered heavier waves, the luggage could get pretty wet. After lunch, we boarded a taxi boat and headed through some mangroves before getting to the open part of the Rio Sierpe. This was a blast, flying down the river and enjoying views of the green countryside and lush jungle on each side of the river. After about 40 minutes, we reached the spot where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. We fought some big waves here. This was exciting, but a little terrifying as the Captain took a few minutes to study the waves before making a break for it from the river mouth into the Pacific. We went down the Pacific coastline (incredible views) to Drake Bay, where we had to make a water landing and walk to Jinetes de Osa. This was a pretty good adventure. It took longer than a plane ride but was much more exciting. It was quicker and I’m sure much less stressful than a car ride would have been.
After checking in and having lunch, we hiked from Jinetes de Osa to chill at a quiet beach. Walking over a suspension bridge on the way back from the beach, we watched a caiman float beneath us.
The next day we took a boat from Jinetes de Osa to a beach landing outside CNP for a hike through the park. Our guide led us to Rio Sirena where we saw some scarlet macaws. We hiked back through the jungle seeing a 3-toed sloth, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, a toucan, curassow, an agouti, some ant highways, and lots of other birds. We had lunch at Sirena Ranger Station and walked along the Rio Claro and back to the Pacific beach where we saw many types of crabs, and then boarded the boat for the trip back to Jinetes de Osa. On the boat ride back to Drake Bay we saw a pod of dolphins.
The next day we took a 45-minute boat ride from Drake Bay to Isla de Cano, a marine reserve with a forest that is a popular spot for migratory birds. The highlight here is what we saw underwater. The snorkeling and diving spots at Cano Island are some of the best in the world. We did a scuba dive here and spent some time snorkeling. We saw reef fish, including an Almaco jack, a dog snapper, some barracudas, a roosterfish, and white tip reef sharks. After spending time in the water, we had a picnic lunch on the island, where we relaxed for a couple of hours.
That night we went on a tour with Tracie “The Bug Lady”. We have seen so many amazing things in Costa Rica during the daytime, it was time to see what happens in the rainforest after the sun goes down. We had to take a canoe in the dark across a lagoon before the tour. We saw some bull fish bats while in the canoe, and then we saw a crocodile feeding on some fish. Our daughter made friends with a huge cicada, and we saw a three-toed sloth moving in the trees, a scorpion, a few huge bugs that we held in our hands, a couple of different snakes, a Bolivian wandering spider (very poisonous), trapdoor spiders (the favorite thing for all of us), caterpillars, frogs and a smokey jungle frog(also poisonous).
The next day, we hired a driver, Cirillo, to take us from Drake Bay to El Remanso Lodge, just outside of CNP. El Remanso is near the tip of where the Pacific Ocean meets Golfo Dulce. The drive was about three hours, with a few river crossings, terrible roads, and beautiful views. Our cabin at El Remanso was amazing! Two levels, with bathrooms on each level, the lower level was enclosed while the upper level was completely open. We discovered a few white-lined bats that lived on the outside of our window openings. Close to the pool, we saw a red-eyed green tree frog in some plants.
The next morning, we woke to the sound of howler monkeys. They were very loud, although we never saw them, it seemed like they were very close. The howler monkey’s sound can travel several miles. From our balcony, we watched some white-faced capuchin monkeys eating berries in trees right next to our cabin. We also saw an agouti go hopping by, a toucan that was very nearby, and a red-faced woodpecker. After breakfast we hiked about 600 feet down to the beach, immediately upon leaving the trail and entering the beach, we saw a whale about a hundred yards off the beach. We hiked about half an hour down the beach, which was almost completely deserted. The beach was beautiful, we could see for miles in each direction and immediately noticed we were almost the only people walking along the beach. We arrived at the tide pools, where we wandered around watching the waves enter the tide pools, and relaxing in the warm water of the pools. On the hike back we entered a trail from a lagoon and walked to a waterfall, where we watched a group of people from the lodge rappelling down the front of the waterfall. We hiked back to the beach, where we spotted a lone coati, and then we climbed up the very steep trail.
The next day our driver took us to Everyday Adventures in Matapalo where we went tree climbing. We hiked for about 45 minutes, going through primary and secondary forests, saw a couple of waterfalls, drank from a freshwater spring, and saw a poison dart frog. We also learned some about the types of plants and trees and saw some spiked palm trees and strangler figs. We took turns climbing a huge Matapalo tree. The goal was to reach an area about 60 feet up the tree where you could hit a gong and enjoy the view. After the climb, we had to leap from our spot into the air where our guide slowly lowered us to the ground. We hiked back down, enjoying the beautiful views of the Pacific. From here, our driver took us to Cabinas Jiménez, right on the water of the Golfo Dulce in Puerto Jiménez.
The next day we walked to a bakery in town for breakfast, and then took a boat across the gulf to the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary. We were greeted by the Director of the Sanctuary and Sweety, an 8-year-old spider monkey. Sweety would grab people by arm to pet her and we feed her raisins from our hands. We toured the sanctuary and were joined by Winky, a 3-year-old spider monkey who jumped into our arms and let us hold her. The Sanctuary rehabilitates injured and abandoned animals. Most of these animals don't have much human contact, so they can be released back into the wild. However, in the case of Sweety and Winky, their injuries were too severe and therefore wouldn't survive in the wild.
We saw coati, a pair of macaws, a couple of sloths (we went into their cages and were able to pet them), some crazy capuchin monkeys, green parrots and parakeets, a type of pig, and a type of weasel. At the end of the tour, our kids sat on a swing and held Winky in their laps. We got back on the boat, went snorkeling in the gulf, and ended up seeing some dolphins on the boat ride back to the dock.
We heard that there were earthquakes on this day, with the epicenter about 18 miles from Puerto Jiménez. The strongest was a 5.2, the others were all around 4. They were all very brief, and deep underground. They didn’t do any damage, and we never felt any of them.
On our last day in this amazing wildlife paradise, we walked to the same bakery for breakfast and walked around town. We enjoyed seeing scarlet macaws flying overhead and took some time to say goodbye to Cirillo, who had been with us for the last few days. We took a cab to the airport and flew back to San Jose. With us on this flight were the owners of El Remanso. We talked with them about the lodge, and how they moved from Spain to Costa Rica to run the lodge.
We’ve taken four trips to Costa Rica and visited five different regions. Each area has been amazing, but the Osa Peninsula is by far our favorite region of the country! It isn’t easy to get to or to navigate around once here, but that’s what has kept it so beautiful and such an amazing place to enjoy nature and spot wildlife.
We’ve been to many countries in different parts of the world and aside from Africa, the Osa Peninsula has been the best spot to live out the Ralph Waldo Emerson line “Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.” The Osa is truly one of the magical places on earth!
What We Didn’t do in the Osa Peninsula, but would do on our next trip
Kayaking - the lagoons and rivers of CNP are another ecosystem waiting to be explored
Sportfishing - Costa Rica is widely known for its sport fishing, CNP is one of the best spots to reel in a catch.
Horseback Tour - with so many places in CSP difficult to reach by foot or even by 4x4, going on a horseback tour
Where We Ate in the Osa Peninsula
As there aren’t many roads or towns and we didn’t have a car, most of the meals we ate were at the lodges where we were staying. We had delicious pastries at a bakery in Puerto Jiménez and enjoyed these restaurants.
Juanita’s, Puerto Jiménez
PizzaMail.It, Puerto Jiménez
Sarpes, Puerto Jiménez
Carolina’s, Puerto Jiménez
Marisqueria, Sierpe