Corcovado National Park
This is the last and largest outpost of virgin lowland rainforest 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 even tapirs. Recently observed jaguar and puma are not unusual in such a biologically intense place.
Most first-time visitors to Corcovado arrive by boat from Drake Bay or Puerto Jimenez. You can also 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 accommodations 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 80, where you will receive a bunkbed, sheets, mosquito net, and pillow. Bringing food is not allowed, as well as single-use plastic. Food at the station is plenty and delicious, but expensive at roughly $25 per meal. Ranger stations are officially open from 7 am to 4 pm daily, but you can walk in almost anytime 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 feature at the beginning of this chapter.
