2 Best Sights in The Osa Peninsula and the South Pacific, Costa Rica

This is the last and largest outpost of virgin lowland rain forest in Central America, and it's teeming with wildlife. Visitors who tread softly along the park's trails may glimpse howler, spider, and squirrel monkeys, coatimundis, peccaries (wild pigs), poison dart frogs, scarlet macaws, and, very rarely, jaguars and tapirs.

Most first-time visitors to Corcovado come on a daylong boat tour from Drake Bay or hike in from Carate, Los Patos, or Dos Brazos del Río Tigre. But to get to the most pristine, wildlife-rich areas, you need to walk, and that means a minimum of three days: one day to walk in, one day to walk out, and at least one day inside the park. Park policy requires every visitor to be accompanied by a certified naturalist guide. Whichever guide or tour company you hire can make the park reservation and pay the park entrance fees for you in Puerto Jiménez. All accommodation and food within the park are now provided by a local community consortium called ADI Corcovado ( [email protected]).

The daily limit on the number of overnight visitors at the Sirena station is 70, bunking down in platform tents with all meals and bedding provided. No outside food is allowed.There's also camping ($4) at the San Pedrillo sector, but without meals or bedding. Ranger stations are officially open from 7 am to 4 pm daily, but you can walk in almost any time with a certified guide, as long as you have reserved and paid in advance. For safety reasons, there is no longer any night walking permitted into or out of the park. For more information, see the highlighted listing in this chapter.

There is some good birding in the dense forest here, which is also an important wildlife corridor connecting to Corcovado National Park. Follow the main road northwest through the American Zone and past the airstrip and a housing project. The place where a dirt road heads into the rain forest is great for bird-watching. There are marked trails from the entrance near the marina, but the park is best explored with a guide; the best birding is along the road.