corcovado national park

One of the highlights of our trip was a day hike into the park. A great mix cultural history and natural wonders. Our guide was a wealth of knowledge and well worth hiring him. You can do the park on your own but I think we would have missed 80% of the stuff we saw if it hadn't been from him!

We did a 3-day hike from Carate to Sirena and back and we absolutely loved it! The forest is incredible, the plants and trees are amazing and there are plenty of wonderful animals around. We have seen tapirs, anteaters, coatis, sloths and tons of monkeys, birds and butterflies. The beaches are absolutely stunning. The streams are great to take a small break and chill out a little bit. We found our guide through Surcos Tours, his name is Enrique and he was great we highly recommend him. You can send me a message if you want me to send you his e-mail address. Don't forget to take good hiking boots, long sleeve shirts and a lot of sun protection cream. A hat is probably a good idea too. Just ask your guide in advance and he will tell you what you need to take with you. If you are well prepared you will love it. It was the highlight of our trip to Costa Rica and Panama!

Fabulous plane ride and excellent guiding by Gary. We saw many birds and mammals including two species of monkeys.

I fell in love with Corcovado, it is teh 2nd time there, and already planning the 3rd for 2017. Plenty of animals, nice Wind from the sea, no moskito or flying insects at all, many littles rivers so relax inn, at the end of the world.

Jungle hostel Bello Horizonte had organized the three day Corcovado trek for us (Carate-Sirena-Carate). We had booked this trip in November (you need permits, a guide, a sleeping spot (you can camp or sleep in the dormitory at Sirena), transport…). We paid $500 for 2 people (it was a $100 per day for the guide if you had 2 people). When we did the trek (February 19 to 21) the park was full and we met several people without a reservation who were not able to go. We did get the impression that it is often possible to organize the trek last minute but if you want to be sure it is best to reserve and pay in advance. Bello Horizonte did a great job organizing the trek for us but be sure to ask questions about your guide. Although there are a lot of good guides there are lots of less good ones as well (some didn’t even seem to know much about the trail, some were clueless about animals, some just want to go as fast as possible… we actually saw a guide running!..., some were drinking). Our guide was CARLOS YANES and he was passionate about the animals, had extensive plant and animal knowledge, had a telescope. He used the inland trail more than the beach (lots of guides prefer the beach because it is faster but inland there is shade and more animal sightings) and he was very committed to finding the animals we really wanted to see. We were picked up at 5 am at the hostel. We had paid for public transport (which leaves Puerto Jimenez at 6 am) but somehow ended up in a taxi (at no extra cost). We started hiking at 7 am. The first day we really took our time as high tide was around 2 pm and we could not cross the river (just before arriving at Sirena) at high tide. It is 3.5 km from Carate to the Leona ranger station, then 16 km to Sirena, two river crossings. We walked on the jungle trail a lot, the last part (3 hours or so) is on the beach, sometimes deep sand and of course no shade. We also had to cope with high tide there and had to scramble here and there to stay dry. The last river crossing was uneventful, we saw no crocodiles or bull sharks and even went for a swim. We arrived at the Sirena ranger station around 4 pm. We slept in tents on the platform (it is possible to put your tent on the lawn). It is noisy till about 8 pm when they turn off the lights (but the first night it was 9 pm as a group came in late). There is a kitchen (we brought our own food, you can also order meals in advance (not cheap)). There are showers (they get pretty dirty). The second day we hiked from 5 till 7, 8:30 till 11 and 12:30 till 17:30. Night hikes are not allowed. Hiking in we saw an anteater, the black-throated trogon, the Halloween crab, squirrel monkeys (at least 4 babies), howler monkeys and spider monkeys. The morning of the second day is when you are supposed to see the tapirs. We sat at the river and waited (and saw a crocodile) but no tapirs. While the other guides went back to the station, Carlos would not give up and took us to a river in the forest. He found two tapirs ! We followed them for a bit, off trail, and it was just amazing. The rest of that day animal sightings were low (all the guides seemed a bit desperate) at first. But we did see the crested guan, lots of male and female great curassows, a huge dragonfly, a yellow-headed caracara, a little blue heron, a tiger heron, agoutis, a whole family of coatis, the scarlet-rumped cacique, toucans, an osprey, a ringed kingfisher, the green Urania butterfly. We also went to the river and swimming hole. We saw spider monkeys play fighting. At the end of the day we finally saw several collared peccaries. In the evening we saw a scorpion in the rafters of the tent platform. We also saw the giant red-winged grasshopper, amazingly beautiful when they fly, like something out of a fairy tale. The last day we left at 5 am. We walked back to Carate in 6.5 hours. The highlight of that walk was the puma with her two babies ! We watched them close to the trail for a few minutes and then they disappeared. One of the little pumas stared at us for a while. The little pumas were very young, had spots and were extremely cute ! We felt very lucky. Moreover we saw a potoo (stick bird), an amazing bird that sits on tree stumps, camouflaged to look like part of the stump. And a large blue bird eating snake. Back at Bello Horizonte they cooked a nice meal for us. We then checked each other for ticks (everyone had some, they are tiny and luckily don’t carry diseases). Despite our bug spray we had lots of insect bites.

We flew into the park in a small chartered plane. The only other way to get there is to walk several miles. Either way it is worth it. Not to be missed.

We did a 3 day/2 night hike from Los Patos to Sirena Ranger Station Lodge to Carate. The wildlife and plant life was AMAZING! The best part of our whole vacation. Do need to be in good shape to hike from Los Patos to Sirena.

What an amazing opportunity to see pristine jungle and beaches filled with wildlife. Be sure to arrange for a reservation to hike ahead of time - either directly through the park or through the place you're staying. You'll also need a guide (required now). We stayed at Lookout Inn (fabulous) and they took care of reservations and arranged a guide (one of their staff members - fantastic). On our hike, we saw a tapir, a white hawk, tons of scarlet macaws, parrots, butterflies (blue morphos and more), anteaters, coati, poison dart frog, trogons, monkeys, and more. Our guide knew about a puma with 2 babies that had been hanging around in a certain spot for a few days and we hiked longer to try to get there, but we heard the mama had hidden her babies in a deep hole and gone out hunting for the day by the time we got close. We hiked from the airstrip at the end of the road on the Carate side along the oceanside trail. Normal guided trips are 5-6 hours, but our guide took us for 8.5 hours round trip. It is very hot (in Feb), with no place once you're officially in the park to refill water so bring plenty. A lot of the hiking was flat, but there were a few strenuous sections and lots of open hiking on the beach -- recommend a sun hat. Definitely recommend this park for some incredible wildlife viewing!

Lots of wildlife pointed out by our local guide. Both beach walk and jungle part of hike. It did get very hot towards the end of the day walking on the beach

Went with Juan Carlos Araya, our guide, and he was fabulous .....took time to show us all the wildlife...from tapirs sloths crocodiles...He pointed out at least a dozen different birds. He explain the medicinal purpose of the plants...Carlos tailored the trip to our needs. He works for Corcovado Dreams...