Persevering with our quest for the world’s most romantic and sustainable locations, we attain the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. The nation itself is a shoe-in for its progressive environmental insurance policies, with 25% of their land protected as nature reserves, 53% of the nation coated in forest (after a decades-long reforestation effort) and 99% renewable vitality. Costa Rica is stuffed with beautiful seashores, volcanoes, rainforests, and swank resorts that would match the invoice for a sustainable honeymoon vacation spot, however none greater than the Osa Peninsula. Nationwide Geographic ranked it within the prime 5 most romantic locations on the earth, and with 2.5percentof the Earth’s biodiversity (in lower than one-thousandth of a % of its complete floor space), additionally they referred to as it “essentially the most biologically intense place on earth.” It’s essentially the most vital wetland ecosystem and mangrove forests in Central America and the biggest remaining tract of lowland rainforest in Pacific Mesoamerica, no to say beautiful seashores…depend us in! We spent every week on this magical nook of southwestern Costa Rica…climbing, birding, kayaking, swimming, and assembly the stewards serving to make Osa such a dream vacation spot. Learn on for our sustainable journey information and plan your getaway.
Sierpe River Experience
This was our second journey to Costa Rica and we spent it meandering down the Pacific Coast to see mates in Guanacaste, go island glamping within the Gulf of Nicoya, chase waterfalls in Dominical, and at last making our approach to Drake Bay within the Osa. With tough highway entry into the northern half of the peninsula, the most effective (and most enjoyable) approach to arrive is by boat from the river city of Sierpe. We walked to the dock the place our 20-foot coated boat was docked, subsequent to a crocodile half its dimension. This isn’t only a water-taxi trip to Drake Bay, it’s an hour-long safari. Rio Sierpe, means Serpent River in Spanish and will get its identify from its snaking path by means of the rainforest. Banking onerous to the left, our captain went barreling in direction of a dense wall of mangroves. It appeared like a crash was imminent, till we noticed a slender opening into an alleyway of thickets. With solely a pair ft on all sides, we gently bumper-boated our manner by means of the maze and out to the open ocean. We cruised alongside the luxurious shoreline and weaved between sea stacks till we noticed the sailboats bobbing in Drake Bay. Our captain obtained as near shore as doable then advised us to roll up our pants, carry our baggage on our heads, and wade our approach to Playa Colorada. Bienvenidos a Bahía Drake!
Tip: Earlier than you allow Sierpe, make certain to take out cash (there are not any ATMs in Drake Bay) and put on the suitable shorts and footwear for a seashore touchdown.
Drake Bay
The city of Drake Bay is principally one important road climbing uphill with a couple of eating places, outfitters, and primary visitor homes, although look farther down the seashore and into the hills and eco-resorts are tucked within the bushes and secluded coves. The folks strolling the seashore are a mixture of boho backpackers, khaki-clad wildlife photographers, old-school fisherman, and starry-eyed {couples}. Automobiles aren’t one thing you’ll use right here, trails and boats result in the most effective locations.
Drake Bay Mountain climbing Path
With 134 inches of annual rainfall, we weren’t shocked to get up to a tropical downpour. We spent the morning engaged on my damaged laptop (Mike actually dismantled it into 50 items in hopes of saving our digital nomad lifeline)…till the solar referred to as us out for a must-do journey: The Drake Bay Mountain climbing Path. It’s 12.5 miles round-trip, however to make it somewhat extra leisurely you possibly can decide to take a ship again from Playa San Josecito or simply hike till you discover the seashore that calls to you. Marveling at towering bamboo, bouncing alongside suspension bridges, and stopping to look at swinging Capuchin monkeys, we ambled our approach to Cocolito Seaside. We walked the golden sand previous a couple of {couples} making sand castles and studying paperback novels, and scaled the black rocks to discover a completely non-public cove. The formations have been like rough-hewen sculptures jutting out of the ocean, with tidepools of their pockets, and cliffs inflicting dramatic crashing waves. Add tender sand, freshly fallen coconuts, and a picnic blanket for a romantic seashore day.
Extra in Drake Bay
Caño Island: Take a ship journey to this biosphere reserve. You may spot dolphins and whales alongside the best way and whenever you arrive, snorkel a reef that attracts big faculties of colourful fish. The island is uninhabited and guarded for its natural world, along with its archaeological significance as a Pre-Columbian burial floor.
Night time Stroll: Upwards of 60% of Osa’s wildlife is nocturnal so head out for the species you’d in any other case miss. Take a tour with “Tracie the Bug Girl,” a biologist and bug fanatic, for tons of enjoyable information and the possibility to see vibrant tree frogs, tailless scorpions, red-eyed tree snakes, owl butterflies, praying mantis, sleeping hummingbirds, and extra.
Floating Tour on Río Claro: Not your lazy river trip, it is a rainforest hike meets, waterfall swimming holes, cliff leaping, and rock hopping with a calming finale at Río Claro seashore. Head out with the professionals at Pachenco Excursions.
Drake Bay Resorts: The luxurious Drake Bay Getaway has a chief location a prime a hill overlooking the principle seashore, and is firmly dedicated to sustainability in accordance with the Paris Pledge for Motion. Simply down the hill and alongside the climbing path, Aguila de Osa has lengthy been a frontrunner in Costa Rica’s eco-lodges and Osa’s conservation, with beautiful rooms for decrease charges. For one thing much more secluded and a 5-minute boat trip from city, Copa de Arbol’s villas are a terrific all-inclusive choice.
Puerto Jiménez
We awakened at 4am to catch the day’s solely “collectivo” bus over the mountains to the Gulfo Dulce facet and the largest city on the peninsula, Puerto Jiménez. The primary road was as regular as any Costa Rican city with {hardware} shops, clothes outlets, and banks, however with journey outfitters and visitor homes combined in. Nothing was open once we arrived at daybreak, however the tables and chairs have been out at Cafeteria Monka, so we made ourselves snug and watched the city get up, beginning with the scarlet macaws, flying in pairs. By quarter to eight there was a rush of bicycles and mother’s ushering their youngsters to high school. There aren’t many instructional sources on this space so the non-profit ASCONA has picked up the place faculties go away off, with a library and neighborhood heart for households to be taught, collect, and create. We walked to the constructing, coated in rainforest-inspired murals, and poked round their small museum of historic images, kids’s artwork studio, and boutique of hand-made souvenirs. We had the privilege of assembly the ASCONA president, Ifigenia Canet, and have been swept up in her ardour for his or her neighborhood applications. She’s dedicated to the conservation of Osa, by means of educating locals on the worth of defending the rainforest–for the planet, their kids, and their very own livelihoods. Purchasing their artisan-made souvenirs and helps assist their applications. You’ll want to try the library and Ifi’s community-based tour firm, Osa Wild!
Luna Lodge
One other Osa mover and shaker within the identify of dialog and eco-tourism is Lana Wedmore, the proprietor of Luna Lodge. Her beautiful lodge has a five-leaf sustainability score, unimaginable wellness applications, and strong actions, although her story and mission is what impressed us to e-book a four-night keep. The Luna Lodge Workforce picked us up from Puerto Jiménez and the driving force took us on a veritable safari, recognizing monkeys, owls, macaws, and animals we might have by no means seen by means of the tinted home windows. The winding highway hit a useless finish on the village of Carate, the place we hung a proper up a dust highway into the river valley. Shifting into four-wheel-drive, our tires climbed rocks and splashed by means of streams. We handed one home with an enormous sluice-box and an previous man, nonetheless hanging on to Osa’s gold-mining days. The jungle-covered highway appeared virtually comically steep…then a signed appeared, “The worst is over, maintain going.” How on earth did Lana pull off constructing on prime of this mountain? Forty years in the past she studied overseas in Costa Rica, then in 1991 she returned on a one-way journey from Colorado to the Osa Peninsula. She turned a tour information and lived for 9 years in a tented camp on the seashore (immediately beneath her current lodge) till an previous miner approached this free-spirit about shopping for his land. He needed the land to go to somebody who would protect this sliver of the rainforest. Immediately Luna Lodge and the land-conservation non-profit White Hawk Basis do precisely that.
Luna Bungalows
We pulled as much as the lodge on the higher slopes of the Carate River Valley. A grand open-air rancho constructing anchors the property and tropical flowers line paths resulting in the pool, eight bungalows, three haciendas, seven platform tents, yoga pavillion, and spa. We have been proven to our bamboo bungalow with big screened-in home windows and couldn’t resolve the place to land first, our four-poster mattress, the open-air bathe, or the porch’s rocking chairs. The tree-covered peaks and symphony of hen songs referred to as us to the terrace and shortly after, the climbing trails.
The Grounds
To higher perceive and discover Luna Lodge’s 60 acres of rainforest, plus the tons of of fruit bushes and endemic vegetation they began from seed, we explored their community of trails with instructional indicators. We took the “Loop of Gold” from the first rainforest into the secondary, studying the occasional botanical ID on a tree or an inspirational quote, like “Look deep into nature, and also you’ll perceive every thing higher” or in Spanish, “Inexperienced is the brand new gold.” We handed the water generators, the photo voltaic array, and the permaculture backyard…and noticed how the lodge offers 100% of its personal energy and as a lot of their meals as doable. We then linked to the waterfall path, a sequence of three cascades and swimming holes proper on property.
Eating
Every night we went down for pre-dinner appetizers, adopted by an exquisite family-style unfold. As a vegetarian and wellness guru, Lana has made positive to make use of natural substances and cater to all dietary wants. Of the 5-7 dishes obtainable every night, all however one shall be vegetarian, if not vegan…so we have been in heaven! When it got here time for our anniversary dinner later that week, they shocked us with a desk on the balcony lit with a pathway of candles, and a customized vegan cake for dessert.
Corcovado Nationwide Park
The solar was barely up and breakfast and lunch-boxes have been prepared for anybody heading out on one in all Luna Lodge’s many excursions. We have been venturing into the crown jewel of Osa’s wilderness areas…Corcovado Nationwide Park. Corcovado is really an inspiring story of conservation. Logging and gold mining boomed on this space till the Seventies when the federal government determined to prioritize the setting over trade and made it a nationwide park. Immediately it’s a cheerful house to 500 tree species, the extremely endangered large anteater, harpy eagles, all of Costa Rica’s massive cats, their 4 native species of monkeys, plus Baird’s Tapir, Central America’s largest land mammal. Mainly a wildlife fanatic’s nirvana. Everybody wants a information to discover the park, which will be carried out as multi-day treks between ranger stations, a ship journey from Drake Bay, or within the case of Luna Lodge visitors, climbing in proper from Carate seashore. Our wildlife sightings started proper off the bat, particularly with our information Marlon’s Spidey senses. Earlier than working for Luna Lodge, he walked this path 5 hours a day, on a regular basis for 4 years, so he knew the place to search for hummingbird nests, the way to make toucan mating calls, and which endemic vegetation had medicinal makes use of. The path weaved out and in of the thick rainforest, opening as much as pristine seashores with bluffs within the distance and below the quilt of the cover. After recognizing the colourful slaty-tailed tragon, a terrific curassow, yellow-throated toucan, the small-but-mighty golden orb weaver, and extra monkeys and coatis than we might depend, we noticed our very first anteater! This northern tamandua was napping in a tree so we relaxed alongside him with a picnic lunch and watched this cutie stir within the branches. What a deal with! See extra of our wildlife photographs.
Kayaking Laguna Pejeperro
That afternoon we took it straightforward by the pool and went to mattress early to prep for one more massive day forward. Nicely earlier than dawn, we set off with Marlon and a small group to kayak Laguna Pejeperro (aka Fish Canine Lagoon). Strolling bleary-eyed alongside the moonlit path and wading into darkish water, we momentarily questioned what we have been doing right here, then got here essentially the most goooooorgeous dawn with glowing clouds and shorebirds reflecting again at us. We paddled the perimeters of the lagoon and realized about uncommon species just like the “Juevo Frito,” a hen who makes a sound like a scorching fried egg, and the “Jesus Christo Lizard” that walks on water. Ibis, egrets, kingfishers, northern jacana, and extra wildlife reminded us that it’s at all times price getting up for dawn within the Osa Peninsula.
Preserving Osa
On our last morning, we did a yoga class with Lana, overlooking the ocean, surrounded by bushes, listening to the macaws, and felt so such gratitude for this expertise. After our namastes, she invited us to her home and studio the place she does therapeutic massage, reiki, and sound therapeutic. We walked into her lounge to seek out it fully open on one facet and looking out proper up the Carate River Valley. Waking up with this view is her reminder to honor and shield this valuable place. Since 2010, she has been operating the White Hawk Basis, a land belief to protect the rainforest and wildlife corridors from the Carate River Valley to the nationwide park. To additional assist the ecosystem, Luna Lodge is an energetic member of The Turtle Safety Committee, ASCONA, and The Affiliation of Integral Growth of Corcovado. The Osa is a fragile place, however supporting the companies and nonprofits with conservation on the core of their mission will assist protect it for future generations of holiday makers and species alike. We have been moved to donate $100 to each ASCONA’s neighborhood library and OsaConservation.org.
Osa Peninsula: Prepare to your journey!
Getting There: To get to Puerto Jimenez, take the 1-hour SANSA flight from San Jose airport to Puerto Jimenez or hop the Grupo Blanco bus from most any Puntarenas coastal city. To get to Drake Bay, taking the river boat from Sierpe is essentially the most enjoyable and environment friendly. There’s a highway that connects the 2 cities however has rare, pre-dawn departures and is impassable within the wet season.
When to Go: January-April is reliably sunny with little to no rainfall. Might-August afternoon showers are frequent, however every thing shall be lush inexperienced and lodges’ drop their charges considerably. Keep away from September-October when rain is the heaviest and essentially the most lodging closes for the season.
Journey Insurance coverage: We extremely suggest getting journey insurance coverage earlier than heading into this distant and wild a part of Costa Rica. Allianz Journey Insurance coverage has complete and reasonably priced plans for single journeys, or our private favourite is their All Journeys Premier Plan which covers a full 12 months of travels to your complete household.
Extra Actions
In a single day in Corcovado Park. Actually immerse your self in Corcovado’s wilderness with an in a single day on the Sirena Ranger station. It’s a strenuous hike and met with very primary lodging, however positive to be unforgettable. See Osa Wild’s excursions into the park.
Get Native at Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre: The neighborhood affiliation of ACODOBRARTI helps join vacationers with locals on this genuine village with historical past excursions, horseback driving, hikes, and quite a lot of cultural experiences.
Whale Watch in Golfo Dulce: One in all simply 4 tropical fjords on the planet, and the one place on earth the place populations of each Northern and Southern Humpback whales meet to start their younger, Golfo Dulce is prime for large sightings. Head out with Golfo Dulce Retreat.
Watch our Osa Video
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An enormous thanks to our sponsor Allianz Journey Insurance coverage for believing within the significance of sustainable journey and supporting eco-minded content material creators like us!
