I am not going to lie. I have been really reluctant to write about our experience at Corcovado National Park. A part of me wants to keep it hidden from the world and keep it in my pocket where it can remain untouched. It is such an incredible place and I can only compare it to The Galapagos Islands- a place where you arrive and feel convinced that you are no longer experiencing real life and must be in a movie.
I know I’m far from the first person to ever visit the park, but it still feels so primitive and there are not that many places that stay that way!
National Geographic claims that Corcovado National Park is the most biologically diverse place on Earth and the third most beautiful National Park in the world (I’ll have to fact check to see what the first two are haha).
It’s wonderfully difficult to get to Corcovado, which is one of the reasons that so few people are able to go. Statistics say that only 2-2.5% of visitors to Costa Rica make it all of the way to Corcovado!
There used to be a small runway in the jungle for planes to fly straight into the park but it was scaring away all of the animals so thankfully the only way to get here now is by walking 6+ hours along the beach under the baking sun, driving your car through a few rivers, or taking a boat.
I’m going to share all of the details of the logistics of our trip, including arriving to the park, prices, and what happens when you get there!
1) Arrive in Sierpe
The first step was to drive to Sierpe, which is about 280 km from San Jose and takes roughly 4.5-5 hours. You can also fly but……we chose not to spend $5 billion haha. There is a lot to see on the way to Sierpe! That said, if you have the money or don’t have the time, I have heard it’s a beautiful plane ride as well.
Sierpe is a teensy tiny town and it seemed like it’s whole purpose was to serve as a jumping point to Drake Bay, which would lead us to Corcovado National Park.
We left our car in gated overnight parking at the restaurant for $6 a night.
Boats leave every day for Drake Bay at 11:30 AM ($15 per person) and 2:30 PM ($20 per person).
2) Boat Ride from Sierpe to Drake Bay ($15-$20/1 hour)
We waited for a few hours when we got there and ended up taking the first boat of the day (11:30 am) to Drake Bay.
Our captain was certifiably insane but SUCH A GOOD CAPTAIN! He drove out of Sierpe like a bat out of hell, swerving through the mangroves and obstacles in the water.
When we got to the park and described our captain to the guides, they laughed and said that he is well known and has muscles on his feet from standing bare feet and driving like that all day every day haha.
I won’t forget stepping off the boat onto the beach in Drake Bay any time soon. It was absolutely surreal. It looked like a ship-wreck scene from a movie.
I couldn’t figure out if this was real life or if we were actually in Jurassic Park. Scarlet Macaws flying ahead and a world that just smells untouched.
It felt primitive and pictures don’t really do justice to the feeling you have when you step into another world like this.
We spent the evening in Drake Bay. Our host picked us up from the beach and walked with us back to our accommodations. Our guide company (Gringo Curt) met us at Cabinas de Marian to go over with us the plans for the next day and what to expect during our 2 days inside Corcovado National Park.
We were like giddy children, knowing that what we were seeing in Drake Bay was only a piece of what we would see in the park!
I had a nice walk that night and ended up getting locked out of our accommodations but finally Anthony came to the rescue or I would have had to sleep in the street outside! haha.
3) Boat Ride from Drake Bay to La Sirena Station, Corcovado National Park (1.5 hours)
Our boat left from Drake Bay at 6 AM.
We drove through Drake Bay, heading south, with the waves crashing on the boat and watched as the world transformed in front of us.
Real life Cast Away.
December-April is a very common time to see whales and dolphins. We didn’t see any, but it didn’t take away from the breathtaking experience!
Note: December-April is our guide’s favorite time to go to the park. He said you can see more animals because there is less rain. That said, we saw almost every animal we wanted to and the park was pretty much abandoned because we were there during off season!
Corcovado National Park reminds me a bit of The Galapagos Islands.
It is very protected, and that is the reason the animals are thriving and it is such a special treat to be there.
You cannot bring food. There are rules about what hours you may be on the trails. You MUST arrive with a guide, or you cannot enter the park. It is the real life wild and it is important to respect all of these rules.
We walked for 20 minutes before we arrived at La Sirena Ranger Station.
Day 1 in Corcovado, La Sirena Station
We arrived at the station at 7:30 AM.
We were floored by how clean La Sirena station was. You have to take you shoes off to enter the station.
There is drinkable water, INCREDIBLE meals cooked by a personal chef, clean showers and bathrooms, and chairs on the front porch where you can pass time just looking for wild life.
There are charging outlets for all of your electronics.
There is even Wifi, though the only time I used it was to try to download some music to make a music video with my cousin’s daughter at 8 PM after they turned off the lights for the light haha.
After a delicious lunch and getting situated, we were so ready to get out and hit the trails!
There are 8 trails around La Sirena station and though they are not very long in distance, we spent hours on each of them observing the plant and animal life.
Our first cool experience was seeing a bunch of spider monkeys climb down the trees and look at us like WE were the interesting species!
Edin taught us how to stay away from them because they sometimes will pee on you on purpose or throw things at you!
I am not even including all of the pictures of the animals that we saw in this jungle because my web page would never load haha but it was unreal.
You almost forget that animals are born to run free and live in the wild. It was so cool to see them doing their thing in here. The danger, rush, teamwork, and wild living they were doing together. It was amazing to witness.
Our guide was SO excited every time we saw a new animal. He could smell the different animals and find hints of which ones had been where. He could predict how far we were from different species. I’ve never seen anything like it.
One time he said, “It smells like wild pig” (to me it smelled like rain and dirt) and 5 minutes later we ran into a herd of wild pigs tromping through the jungle!
One of my favorite memories was Edin taking us to swim in the river. He warned us that sometimes there were little crocodiles swimming in this river.
We saw a bunch of fish but nothing else.
We spent an hour drifting in the current, trying to climb a tree hanging over the river, and doing flips to cool off.
Edin had just found a puma somehow right above the water we were swimming in and as we climbed out of the water Candice found a FLEUR DE LANCE (one of the most dangerous snakes in Costa Rica).
Edin said that you will die within 6 hours of being bit. He had 2 brothers that were farmers that were bit and even though they got help before they died, it took years to recover.
I was a little freaked out after that because I was only wearing my Teevas! We started to head back to the ranger station because the snakes come out when it’s dark!
We came back to La Sirena and showered before our delicious dinner of pork, salad and asian noodles, rice pudding and fruit. We re-lived the day’s events and everyone wanted to see the picture of the puma and fleur de lance we saw!
We were well fed, clean and tired from the day’s excitement, but I was too excited to sleep.
We only had 2 hours before it was pitch black and they turned the lights off in the station for the evening.
I walked out to the front porch with some other guests to look for stars and wildlife. I stayed up way too late that night waiting for the stars to come out but they finally did.
I saw more stars than I have ever seen in my life, besides Amantani, Peru! It was as if someone had knocked over a salt shaker across a deep cerulean blanket.
Someone also randomly shined their flashlight and there was a TAPIR walking along the grass in front of our station!
I finally went to bed but just right before the Howler Monkeys came to life to wake up the entire jungle!
Day 2 Corcovado, La Sirena Station
We headed out at 5:45 AM to make sure we had our best chance of seeing a Tapir.
Tapirs (Danto in Spanish) are mammals that live in moist, dense forests in the Southern Hemisphere. You can find them from Mexico to Ecuador.
They can be up to sholder height and weigh up to 800 lbs!
They are hard to find because they are kind of shy, but you can find them drinking water, and Edin knew where to look!
They look like a combination of a mouse (ears), elephant (face), hippo (skin), horse (body) and dinosaur (feet). They are such crazy animals!
We looked at a few places and finally found several! Once we ran silently through the jungle to cut one off and that was a fun memory trying to catch up with it!
We spent 4 more hours hiking around that morning and saw SO many more monkeys, amphibians, plant life and birds.
Katie made a funny noise with her mouth that attracted a ton of spider monkeys and they all came down from the trees to check her out, including a little baby. It was hillarious!
We had an incredible time, but our time had come to an end. We had to head back to the station at 11 to pack up and head out to catch the boat back to Drake Bay.
Boats leave Corcovado at 12:30 (1.5 hour ride to Drake Bay) and leave Drake bay at 2 PM (1 hour ride to Sierpe) where we got our car and drove back, looking through all of our pictures and living off of the cloud-9 high from those two short but life-changing days inside Corcovado National Park.
It was sad to be done, but we saw almost everything we wanted to see and were left of the feeling of “I want to go back”, which is priceless.
We couldn’t have done it without our incredible guide Edin. I’ll never forget how excited he was to see each animal. He even goes there sometimes on his days off.
Costs: 2 days 1 night at La Sirena Station Corcovado National Park
- Transport Drake-La Sirena-Drake (by boat): $60
- Entrance to National Park and 1 night Accomodation: $60
- Professional Guide for two days (with telescope): $120
- Meals (lunch, dinner, breakfast): $95
- Other (not sure what this was): $20
Grand Total: $335 per person
I would 100% recommend Edin as your tour guide. He is the best combination of talented and passionate that I have ever met. We would not have seen almost ANY of those animals without him! He was able to follow tracks, hunt down a smell, read markings and just read situations in the jungle that totally passed over our heads.
(506) 8579- 4700 is his number on WhatsApp. He is available year round and just one of the best people you will ever meet.