Cindy Southgate's Travels

Saturday, February 22

Osa Peninsula

On day five we were picked up by our driver at 8:30 a.m. to take us to the dock in Sierpe. We arranged this through the hotel we stayed at at the end of our vacation – http://tulemar.com. I was most excited to head to the Osa Peninsula and Corcovado Park which was named by National Geographic as “one of the most biologically diverse places in the world”. I was looking forward to seeing all the animals that we don’t have here: tapirs, coatis, monkeys, and most of all, sloths!

We were pleased to see our first driver again who was right on time and got us to the ferry dock at the time that we requested. We enjoyed taking in the sights as we drove further south.

We needed to take a boat to our next destination as there are no roads. There is a trail parallel to the ocean from Drake Bay but it is a four hour hike and we had too many bags! To take the ferry someone has to merely show up and tell them which lodge they are going to. There is one stop in Drake Bay, and then stops as requested at other lodges with ours being the last stop. While we were waiting Mike found hat number two – one with flaps to cover his ears and neck. It wasn’t really his style as it was made of camo print but it was more practical than the straw hat. I also picked up a diet coke for the ride.

Ferry dock in Sierpe

The boat ride to our next location would be a tour in itself. The first hour is through a mangrove forest before it exits into the ocean. The driver stopped a few times to show us some wildlife – some monkeys and an owl on it’s favourite perch.

We put our backpacks and suitcases in garbage bags to keep them dry just in case it rained and because we would be doing a wet landing. Shortly after getting out into the ocean we made our first stop at Drake Bay. The boat was backed into the beach and most of the people got off there.

We continued our journey by boat for another half hour or so. The scenery along the way was stunning, especially as we were pulling in to our destination, Jaguar’s Jungle! http://jungladeljaguar.com

Jaguars’ Jungle

We arrived around lunch time and were greeted at the beach by the manager, Brian. He took us up to our cabin where we spent the next five nights. We had booked the most expensive one (it was only about $100 a night) and were very pleased that we did, as the one next door had a separate building for it’s bathroom. When we entered the room they were just finishing installing a ceiling fan above the bed. Great timing! We also found out just a few weeks before arriving that they now accepted credit cards so we didn’t have to bring a pile of cash with us. They had also added some more solar panels, so our power lasted all night for three of the nights that we were there. I had booked this room almost a year earlier, so these changes were a nice surprise. Our room was great – lots of room and a huge bathroom. We had a queen bed and two twin beds which we used as storage for all our gear. This property has 3 cabins as well as some hostel rooms.

After doing a bit of unpacking, we went and had some lunch. The food was great and we loved sitting on this bench looking out over the ocean while we ate.

Once full, we headed out to explore the property ….

…followed by a hike a bit further away to explore some of the nearby shoreline.

The sun goes down quite early here as it is near the equator. We had dinner around 6 p.m. and enjoyed watching the sunset.

Fun Fact: Costa Rica’s currency is the Colone. This translates to Columbus, as in Christoper. They come in different colours.