A veritable trip highlight, Drake Bay is home to Corcovado National Park and Caño Island. The former is “the premier wildlife experience in Costa Rica” – Lonely Planet, “one of the most biologically intense places on earth” – National Geographic. The latter is “the best bloody scuba spot in Costa Rica unless you’re willing to travel 32 hours by boat and spend $5,000” – Rowan Moss. Drake Bay gives the best access to both of these spots, while remaining hugely remote, undeveloped and gorgeously beautiful in its own right. We stay here for 6 nights – 5 days. 2x days scuba, 1x day chill (turned out to be the least chill day ever) and 2x days at Corcovado. Needless to say, it was incredible.
Day 10 – Travel to Drake Bay
One does not simply walk into Drake Bay. Perched on the Osa Peninsula, in the South West of Costa Rica, it’s not the easiest place to reach. By small plane you can fly from San Jose. By private 4×4 you can expensively wind through the unpaved mountain trail for several hours. The most popular option is by boat from Sierpe.
The boat trip was an adventure in itself. Sierpe is an unimaginatively named small town on the Sierpe River, sitting at the apex of a large delta system. We would be navigated through the mangroves to the sea, before hugging the coastline to Drake Bay. The whole trip was to take about an hour. After being bundled unceremoniously into a smallish speedboat, we set off at a sedate pace. This is relaxing, I thought to myself. Then, without warning, the captain hit the throttle, and everyone grabbed the nearest thing. We were hurtling through the mangroves at top speed. A few nervous smiles were shared, and we settled in to enjoy the ride.
The mangroves were beautiful. Just lush forest and trees right up to the water. The river widened into the sea proper and we got amazing views of the Osa Peninsula coastline. Untouched forest as far as the eye could see. Mossy cliffs and sandy beaches alike wowed us all – apart from the somehow soundlessly asleep baby opposite me. The landing was a classic Costa Rican reverse onto the beach and lift the engine up at the last minute jobby. We hopped into the water, awaited our luggage from the hold, then scrambled up the beach into the waiting arms of Jonnhattan, our host, who had kindly showed up to taxi us to Hotel Casa Gitana – our home for the next 6 nights.
The town is composed of a few dusty streets of bars, restaurants small hotels and tour centres. Nothing fancy. Other hotels are spread out across the coastline, and ours was about 3 miles away, so taxi was best, though we did brave the walk once in our stay. Hotel Casa Gitana was another basic affair. A small room with very necessary AC, a restaurant and most importantly three dogs. One of which, a chunky fellow dubbed slug-dog by me and Billie, would jump onto our laps and lie motionless to be stroked until forced off. We became quite fond of slug-dog.
Casa Gitana was, essentially, just opposite a nearly always deserted, beautiful beach and a picturesque bridge across the road took us there to watch sunset most evenings before Piña Coladas and dinner. It’s a tough old life.
Days 11 and 12 – Scuba at Caño Island
I’m merging these days into one entry because, sadly, I couldn’t find my GoPro before we left the UK and therefore don’t have an stunning underwater pictures for you. I so desperately want some sort of incredible, professional underwater camera, but such things are out of reasonable financial reach. You will have to resort my rich descriptions and to googling the names of things I list, if you so desire.
Across the 2x days we did 4 dives at Cano Island. We had to be at the unfortunately named CRAD (Costa Rica Adventure Divers) dive centre at 6.40 both mornings to take the hour long boat to Caño Island Biological Reserve. Only recently (2008 I think?) was the reserve opened to some tourism, in the form of scuba and snorkelling, and even then only on the North Side of the island and in limited numbers. Dubbed as one of the best scuba spots in the WORLD, it holds some of the largest remaining areas of coral reef to explore. In the right season, you can see humpback whales, whale sharks and giant manta rays. None of which we saw as it wasn’t the season, however we did see plenty to sate our aquatic adventure thirst.
In order of awe: white tipped reef sharks (loads of em, close up, about 2m long in some cases), sea turtles (bloody massive, biggest we’ve seen and so very calm and regal), southern sting rays (invisible till they shrugged off the sand under which they hid and shimmered away – we saw some huge ones in the distance, well over a meter wide, possibly 2m), octopus (incredible, moved amazingly), a guitar shark (very small and very rare – it skittered away), a sea horse (bizzare), a lobster, and then impressive amounts of tropical fish – some in great shoals. My favourite was a large shoal of Jackfish, which are huge, silver and somewhat resemble tuna. All four dives were hugely adventurous and teeming with marine life. On the first day, we were dropped off on a Caño Island beach while the boat dropped off the snorkellers. There was a small track to the lookout where I snapped this beautiful view.
Our one other diving related excitement came on the 2nd dive day, on our boat trip into Caño Island. Our intrepid dive master, Frederico, pointed north and said “Humpbacks” with relative calm. However when we drew nearer even he couldn’t contain his excitement at the rare, and quite sad, spectacle that we beheld. A humpback female and her calf were being accosted by 2x males. Their intent, according to Frederico, who was suddenly a whale expert and could somehow discern this behaviour from about 50m away and from above the water, was to mate with the female. They would first have to separate the calf from the mother – permanently, even killing it if necessary – and then jostle for the mating rights. We couldn’t see this exactly, per say, but there was a lot of activity. Unbelievably the whales headed towards us and came within 15 meters or so of the boat. The males came above water and made an incredible vocalisation. Even Frederico had never heard anything like it before. There was many an iconic tail slap. They were clearly massive. It was an incredible experience.
While recovering in the afternoon I would prowl the hotel garden and the street for birds to picture. Turns out I’m something of a fair weather twitcher, though the weather has to be very fair indeed… i.e Costa Rica – the best bird-watching destination in the world, and Drake Bay is a pretty good spot within Costa Rica. Here are some of the birds I snapped.
Day 13 – Playa Josesito Hike, Drake Bay
This was supposed to be our chill day, but having heard alluring tales of the Playa Josesito Hike, we packed our backpacks and took to the road. We got a cab to downtown Drake Bay where the hike trail starts and began the 3 hour adventure of a lifetime. On the right, amazing, pristine, empty beaches. On the left, protected jungle in the most biodiverse place on earth. The trail was the best we’ve done in Costa Rica, probably ever. Incidents included me falling over on my butt twice in the space of 30 seconds into thick mud, while heroically saving my camera from death, and Billie confidently using a branch for support only to find it had massive spikes which impaled her. The jungle doth not take kindly to strangers. We assume it wasn’t poisonous ‘cos she’s still alive to this day.
Near the end, we came across Life for Life, where a man, with the help of volunteers, goes out looking for turtle eggs on the beach. He finds something like 50 a day, and keeps them safe till they hatch when he releases them at sunset. Unfortunately none had hatched that day, but we gave a donation to his very worthy cause. We finally reached Playa Josesito. We were, in no small way, quite dead. We had crossed rivers up to our waists, filled our shoes with stones and had gone the wrong way across rocky shore for at least 30 minutes before realising our error and turning back. The beach was surprisingly busy, as boats bring lazy, unadventurous tourists here to enjoy it without first facing the perils of the rainforest. The beach is particularly good due to the rocky outcrops that the waves break on, forming a somewhat calm bay. We had brought our snorkeling gear with us so pootled around in the water looking at coral and lovely tropical fishies. We saw Scarlett Macaws, spider monkeys (more on those later) and our first Coati. None of these I pictured on account of being past caring.
The turtle man had told us of his hostel 10 minutes further along, and in-house restaurant named Sunset Paradise. So we went there, had a burger and some well earned beers, and watched the sunset fall on the sea.
We asked them to arrange us a taxi back to Drake Bay. We were told to walk 10 minutes down the beach to the road and that an ATV (quad bike thingy) would be waiting for us. Well, the walk was about 25 minutes along a huge beach and by this point it was well and truly dark. Several times we thought we’d missed the road and tried to head inland to find it to no avail. Slightly panicked, we eventually came to a road and, thank the lord, a man with an ATV waited. He tied our bags to the front and off we went. It was, without a doubt, the best taxi we’ve ever had. Billie was sandwiched between the man and me, and I was perilously holding on for dear life at the back – especially when traversing the steep uphill sections where my mantra of “shit shit shit shit shit” really helped calm my nerves as I felt I would slip off the back any moment. We whizzed up and down hills past horses and cows walking the night roads, across rivers where we held our legs high to avoid them getting caught in the water. The stars were out in full force and it was exhilarating and magical. 30 to 45 minutes later we were back at Casa Gitana and our ATV driver was all smiles and fist bumps before disappearing into the night. We slept well that night…
Day 14 – El Trillo de la Danta (The Tapir Trail)
The Tapir Trail isn’t actually named as such because there are loads of tapirs just hanging around, so it’s an awfully misleading name. It’s named so because when the track was being built, the workers would each day arrive to see evidence of tapirs – one images footprints and the like. Tapirs are one of the many animals people will come to Drake Bay / Corcovado to specifically see. Odd looking and very unique animals. More on that later. It’s also worth noting that the Tapir Trail isn’t actually IN Corcovado National Park, but is in a private nature reserve right on the boundary of it. Essentially, you can see all the things you might see in Corcovado here as well. Draws to this include that you don’t need to take an hour long boat, as you do in Corcovado, and also that only the one tour guide operates here, so you are the only people there at any given moment. Lastly, this route takes you through primary rainforest. This means it has never been cut down. Secondary rainforest has been cutdown and the area has regrown. Many parts of Corcovado (including the toured part of it) are secondary rainforest.
We opted for the afternoon/evening tour rather than the morning tour. We’d be doing the proper Corcovado the next morning, and we were advised this time was better because it was essentially a day and night tour thrown into one. Our intrepid guide, Gustavo, picked us up from our hotel. We were joined by a British couple, an American couple and a Costa Rican couple. Together, we journeyed into the rainforest in Gustavo’s Toyota minibus. On the way Gustavo spotted a toucan and somehow an owl that was literally invisible. He did this while driving. It became very clear, very quickly, that Gustavo has the best nature spotting eyes the world has ever seen. We were often more impressed he’d SEEN the animal than by the animal itself. He had lived in Drake Bay his whole life, before there was a road, before there was electricity and water. He did 2x 6 or 7 hour tours EVERY DAY. He basically lived and breathed the rainforest and we couldn’t have asked for a better guide.
We saw the fourth and final Costa Rican monkey – the spider monkey. Larger than all the others and orange, it reminded us of the orangutans of Borneo from our previous trip. The light is awful in the rainforest and they were quite far away, so no pics I’m afraid. I did get pics in Corcovado the following day though, so read on to see these beasties. Gustavo told us of rainforest history, trees and all sorts. He made amazing imitations of birds and monkeys and got responses from the depths of the jungle. We saw a squirrel that moved so amazingly fast, yet jerkily, it looked otherworldly. We arrived at an outpost and ditched our shoes for wellies that were provided, and it turned to night… We walked through thin, muddy trails, past ponds and navigated under hanging vines and branches. We had flashlights and we’re told to beware of snakes. Indeed, Gustavo spotted for us a hognose pit viper, a tiny yellow snake and extremely venemous. He took pictures on everyone’s phones from an uncomfortably close distance. I had the safety of my long lens…
We moved on to hunt for frogs (to see them, not for dinner). We saw the red eyed tree frog, the Costa Rican frog apparently, as well as the gladiator frog, a huge bullfrog and a tiny pygmy frog of some sort which is the only frog not to go through tadpole stage, it’s just a frog right off the bat.
Gustavo also spotted a tarantula on a tree. Twas large and evil looking.
At this point we were headed back to the outpost, somewhat exhausted. We’d walked at least a few kilometers through rainforest through uneven, muddy trails in pitch black… It’s not easy going stuff. As we approached the outpost, Gustavo was given a torch signal by someone there and we were told to lower our torches and walk quietly. Tapirs had arrived. We slowly approached the tapirs under the light of just Gustavo’s torch. They were foraging for food in the garden of the outpost, where the owners / guardians of the reserve were waiting. It was a mother and baby. They were surprisingly very big! A bit like small elephants or rhinos, and according to Gustavo most closely related to Rhinos due to their footprint which is almost identical. They’re herbivores and were loudly snuffling for whatever they could find to eat in the garden. He kept quietly talking because he said it let them know where we are. He proved this by stopping talking and both tapirs raised their snouts (to smell for us) and ears (to listen for us). As long as they knew where we were, they were happy for us to be there and to shine a torch on them. Tapirs are nocturnal, and most people don’t get a chance to see them awake. It was really special.
Gustavo drove us off for a delicious dinner and then back to our hotel. It was outrageously late (9.30pm – the latest we’d stayed up) and tomorrow we had to be up at 5am for Corcovado. Straight to bed we went, exhausted.
Day 15 – Corcovado National Park
Blimey this is a long blog post, but so it should be really. Drake Bay is the main event. We were up at 5am and sleepily packing for our day trip to Corcovado. We were at the beach by 5.40 waiting to be assigned to a tour group and a boat to take us there. Kenneth was our funny and friendly guide. He claimed he was conceived in the National Park (“maybe on that log you’re sitting on” he said to me, winking). The boat trip was beautiful, though I was still a bit dazed with tiredness. We arrived at the beach in Corcovado National Park along with 8 or so other boats and dismounted into the shallows to clamber up the entrance. There were probably about 60 people visiting in total, we were in a group of 6.
Kenneth took us into the rainforest proper. His information about trees was genuinely fascinating and we saw some good wildlife. As before, my camera is really not suited to the rainforest. It’s very dark in the trees and my camera can’t handle it. Seemingly, a mobile phone pointed through a tour guides scope handles it very well, so many of the pictures below are taken by Kenneth, and distributed to us after the tour. Tiny bats chew through just a small part of a leaf stalk so it half falls over, creating a place for them to hang out (literally) in the day. They had very cute pug-dog faces.
Spider monkeys are the biggest monkey in Costa Rica. Their tail is always hanging onto a different branch, sometimes seemingly acting of its own accord, in case the one they’re holding breaks.
A crested owl was quite chill until some spider monkeys drew close, then it’s eyebrows peaked up in its state of alert.
Scarlett Macaws were hugely endangered but are now making a comeback. An iconic Costa Rican bird seen on many a mural or hotel sign. They mate for life and are often seen in pairs.
This big tapir was having a good old nap, and us going to check him out didn’t seem to stir him at all.
We also saw a croc. Perhaps hopeful that breakfast would just fly into its mouth?
It was super fun thanks to Kenneth’s excellent guiding skills. We feel so lucky to have been able to witness all of this untouched, protected wildlife. Costa Ricans are really proud that their small country (less than half the size of the UK) holds 2.8% of the world’s biodiversity. Over 90% of that can be found in Corcovado National Park, Drake Bay. It’s a very special place indeed! When we got back to the hotel, it was about 2.30pm. Of the last 24 hours, over 15 of them had been ON a tour. We were unimaginably tired but gratified from the experiences. A piña colada or two later and we were on the beach, watching the sun set over the Pacific coast for the last time.
Tomorrow, we would leave Drake Bay and take a small plane back to San Jose and then bus it down to Cahuita, a small, relaxed town on the Caribbean Coast. We’ll have to get up early there, to watch the sunrise instead.
