The Osa

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For my birthday, James took me to the Osa Peninsula in southwestern Costa Rica. After hearing that the Osa was one of the most ecologically diverse places on earth, I had huge expectations, and they were all met; a definite for anyone traveling to CR.



The drive down from Samara was arduous to say the least. We lost ourselves in the crazy driving world (you know the one where you’re singing to yourself and making up weird songs and words) for a few hours. After spending about 5 hours on the freeway (which in CR consists of 2 lanes behind numerous semis) we realized that we missed our exit. After about an hour we were back on track.



2 hours later we arrived in Puerto Jimenez, our stop over for the night. I had a mini crisis that night when our room was invaded by ants and geckos, not that we didn’t experience that every night since living in CR, but perhaps I had imagined an escape from the little buggers for one night. Silly me… That morning we woke, and I was surprised with a date card under the door J Chris Hansen you don’t have anything on clever James.. A little while later we were back on the road, this time heading into the Osa.



The Osa is about 40 miles from Puerto Jimenez, but the roads are terrible. The 40 minute drive took us 3 hours! The drive was very bouncy and about every 100 feet we had to drive through several feet of water (aka rivers) to get to the other side of the road. But alas, we arrived! We stayed at the Finca ecolodge. It was amazing. About 1 mile up the road, we got out of the car to look above, there were scarlet macaws everywhere! The lodge was very rustic, but very cool. All electricity, food, and water were produced on site. We stayed at a cabin high up on a hill. It was kind of like luxurious camping. Our balcony overlooked the forest below and the ocean. We had no doors, just a mosquito net over the bed, and the shower was completely outdoors. The monkeys played in the trees, directly opposite our cabin. During our trip we saw howlers, squirrel, and spider monkeys, and tons of macaws among others.



Although the water was beautiful, it was not safe to swim in. The rip tides were very strong and dangerous, so we just enjoyed the water from the beach. Our first night we took a moonlit walk along the beach, hoping to find turtles. But, we didn’t see any L The next day we hiked to the national park. This was unlike any other national park that I’ve been to. You can’t simply pull your car up and walk in. You have to earn it by hiking in. The park entrance was entertaining, just a couple of men and horses sitting around, staring out to the sea. It’s nice to see a wildlife park so secluded, the way it should be. We arrived at the park in the afternoon and as to be expected, it was quite quiet. I’m sure had we come earlier in the day we would have seen more action. We explored for a little while and then decided to head back.



Shortly after our return from the park, we headed back to Puerto Jimenez and up towards Samara.

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