CAFENET EL SOL

Puerto Jimenez, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica More Information

Corcovado National Park

VISITOR ADVISORY:  SIRENA STATION CLOSED FOR MONTH OF DECEMBER, 2005

November 30, 2005:  Sirena Ranger Station was today quarantined for a one-month period to allow scientists to investigate the mysterious deaths of over twenty monkeys and numerous birds in the Sirena Ranger Station area at the heart of Corcovado National Park, discovered yesterday.  Sirena is the only ranger station to have been quarantined, and visitors may still visit La Leona, Los Patos, and San Pedrillo stations, but these are camping only with no public food preparation capacity.

Corcovado National Park is the largest of the 13 national parks that comprise the Costa Rica National Park system, its oft-heralded crown jewel.  Corcovado comprises a classic lowland tropical rain forest ecosystem but enjoys the diversity of the girding mountains.  Corcovado contains the largest expanse of contiguous tropical rain forest north of the Amazon Basin and owing to its presence along the isthmus separating North and South America has a biodiversity practically unrivaled on the planet.

The Park contains four ranger stations.  While San Pedrillo, La Leona, and Los Patos support camping only, Sirena Ranger Station, at the heart of the park, has dormitory style accommodations and three prepared meals a day.  Sirena stays booked well in advance, so all planned excursions into the park should be reserved in advance to ensure dorm space and food at Sirena.  Otherwise, you can still go and camp, though there is a limit on the camping permits also.  Frequently during our high season, the Park is "closed" because it has a bunch of people visiting.  This means that the ranger station in town does not issue permits.  It is not necessarily really closed, however, to campers with their own food. 

Fees as of February 2005 are as follows:

Getting There

The ideal way to enjoy Corcovado is to plan to spend at least two days in the park.  A three day trip is ideal to provide two days for hiking and one day for enjoying the diversity of the game trails and wildlife viewing at Sirena Ranger Station.  Since there is public transport twice daily from Jimenez to Carate and there is no public transport from Los Patos park entrance to Jimenez, the smoothest route to take is to enter at Los Patos and exit at La Leona.  This allows the Corcovado traveler to secure transport on the way in but be able to rely on transport being available on the way out.  My favorite way to enter is to hire horses at Guadalupe just outside of La Palma and ride up the river valley to reach the Los Patos park entrance.  The cost is $20 per person, and horses are readily available around La Palma so that no advance reservations for the horses are necessary.  A taxi from Jimenez to the Los Patos entrance is $60.  La Palma taxis will make the run typically for $45, sometimes less.  Buses connect Puerto Jimenez and La Palma throughout the day every day.

For those planning on making the trip from Puerto Jimenez through Los Patos all the way to Sirena, be advised that the 20 km hike requires a fairly early start.  Hikers who do not arrive at the Los Patos ranger station by eleven o'clock are not permitted to continue on to Sirena.

For visitors that are interested in a single day tour to Corcovado, the best way is to fly in by charter on Alfa Romeo ($450 round trip up to five passengers).  It's an eight minute flight, and the heart of the park, Sirena cannot be visited in a single day other than by air and arguably by boat.  The daily Puerto Jimenez-Carate colectivo makes it possible for overland travelers to make it to the park and back in a single day, but four hours are spent in round trip transport, and from Carate it is still an hour and a half round trip walk to the park entrance.  Therefore, hikers going in for a single day from Jimenez through La Leona only have a few hours to explore the southern park entrance before having to catch a ride back out.

La Leona Lodge ($60 per person, three meals included) is an ideal destination for people that wish to explore the park's southern end and enjoy the amenities of beach side fine dining and comfortable bedding and refrigeration.

For Corcovado visitors coming from the Drake area, San Pedrillo is the nearest park entrance but is still an eight mile hike from Drake.  A wide variety of Drake tour operators provide one day tours around the San Pedrillo ranger station with transport in and out by speed boat.  Because the river mouths are all tidally influenced and are prime habitat for crocodiles and bull sharks at high tide, rivers are ideally best crossed at low tide.  When planning hikes, care should be taken, therefore, to hit these crossings as low tide where possible.  However, the hike from Sirena to San Pedrillo involves three such crossings and their geographic separation makes it impossible to cross all three in a single day at low tide.  Therefore the hike from San Pedrillo to Sirena is one that is best undertaken with a professional guide that knows how to get across these rivers without being eaten by wild animals.

Sirena Ranger Station Amenities

The Sirena Ranger Station is a well anointed picturesque facility in the middle of the jungle that has dormitory style housing, a roofed platform for tents, several thousand square meters of neatly trimmed yard, where you can camp under the elements, dorm style housing with two bunk beds per room for an occupancy of four per room, cafeteria, and park ranger and research offices.  The Park Rangers are very helpful and friendly.  There is a kitchen and maintenance staff as well.  Other permanent camp residents include Charles Foerster, who has lived there eight years in ongoing Baird´s tapir research.  At any given time, several other post-graduate research residents will be onsite from universities in Costa Rica, the United States, and abroad.  There is an extensive network of well kept trails in the Sirena lowland region.  You can also rent a canoe at the Ranger Station and paddle up the Sirena River at high tide.  Located about 300 meters from the beach, Sirena also boasts a grass landing strip and daily charter flights from Puerto Jimenez, eight minutes away by air.

Corcovado Three-Day Guided Expedition

All inclusive two full day Corcovado expedition, with the following itinerary:

Day One  

0600   Departure Jimenez in taxi.  

0640   Coffee and pastries at La Danta Lodge in Guadalupe.  

0700   Mount up and head for the mountains

0900   Dismount at Corcovado Park boundary and climb to Los Patos

1000   Pass through Los Patos, fill water bottles

1130   Pack lunch in the forest

1530   Arrival and checkin at Sirena:  soft drinks, showers, laundry, lounging

1800   Dinner, Sirena

1900   Night hike, Sirena area, optional, two hours max.

Day Two

0600   Breakfast at Sirena

0700  Depending on tides either canoe trip up Sirena River or wilderness hike on Sirena trails.

1100  Lunch at Sirena

1230  Depending on tide schedule either canoe trip up Sirena River or wilderness hike on Sirena Trails

1800  Dinner, Sirena

1900  Night hike, Sirena area, optional, two hours max.

Day Three

0600   Breakfast

0700   Departure (fill water bottles).  The hike out is tide dependent, your day two schedule will be determined according to the tides on your particular reservation dates.  When the high tide peaks around 8-9, then either hike out at three in the morning, or canoe in the morning and hike out in the afternoon and pay $60 extra for private taxi back to Jimenez.

1500   Arrival at latest at Carate pulpería.  Depending on time you can stop at La Leona Lodge forty minutes prior for ice cold soft drinks, or, heaven forbid, frosty barley pops.

1600   Departure Colectivo Carate Pulperia

1800   Back in Puerto Jimenez

COST:  Corcovado Three Day, All Included:  2 people:  $450 per person,  3 people:  $410 per person,  4 people:  $370 per person.  These rates apply only when dorm housing is available in Sirena.  For camping expeditions, pricing is done on a case-by-case basis and is more expensive.

Corcovado Two-Day Guided Expedition

All inclusive two full day Corcovado expedition, with the following itinerary:

Day One  

0600   Departure Jimenez in taxi.  

0640   Coffee and pastries at La Danta Lodge in Guadalupe.  

0700   Mount up and head for the mountains

0900   Dismount at Corcovado Park boundary and climb to Los Patos

1000   Pass through Los Patos, fill water bottles

1130   Pack lunch in the forest

1530   Arrival and checkin at Sirena:  soft drinks, showers, laundry, lounging

1800   Dinner, Sirena

1900   Night hike, Sirena area, optional, two hours max.

Day Two

0600   Breakfast

0700   Departure (fill water bottles).  The hike out is tide dependent, your day two schedule will be determined according to the tides on your particular reservation dates.  When the high tide peaks around 8-9, then either hike out at three in the morning, or canoe in the morning and hike out in the afternoon and pay $60 extra for private taxi back to Jimenez.

1500   Arrival at latest at Carate pulpería.  Depending on time you can stop at La Leona Lodge forty minutes prior for ice cold soft drinks, or, heaven forbid, frosty barley pops.

1600   Departure Colectivo Carate Pulperia

1800   Back in Puerto Jimenez

COST:  Corcovado Two Day, All Included:  2 people:  $300 per person,  3 people:  $275 per person,  4 people:  $250 per person.  These rates apply only when dorm housing is available in Sirena.  For camping expeditions, pricing is done on a case-by-case basis and is more expensive.

What to Bring

The best rule is that If it won´t fit in a day pack, don´t bring it along.  You will be hiking 38 kilometers, 19 the first day, and 19 the second day.  The first day is a cool and relatively easy day, the second day is grueling, hot, and tiring.  Bring only the bare essentials, which are the following:

1)  Loose cotton clothing, shorts, t-shirt, hat, one change tops, and plan to wash your day one hiking clothes at Sirena and put them on wet for Day 2 the next morning.

2)  Appropriate footwear is individual specific, but leather is not recommended.  Day One can be done barefoot.  Day Two involves lots of rocks, so you should have something more than Tevas.  I prefer the $5 pair of rubber boots sold locally.  They are tough, have excellent traction in the forest, are easy to take off and put on, and dry very quickly if you go over the top.

3)  Insect protection.  Bring a strong repellant.  Two different species of locally present mosquitoes carry dengue fever and malari.

4)  Water.  Two-liter bottle is adequate

5)  Snacks and Treats.  Every slightest creature comfort is magnified in the wilderness, so be your own judge, just keep it light.

6)  Sunglasses and sunblock.

7)  Camera, obviously.

8)  Plastic bags.  One garbage size plastic bag that you can put your pack in to stay dry, one  small plastic bag for dirty clothes, and several zip loc baggies to carry items that must stay dry:  passport, matches, camera, film, SIMS, rolling papers, etc.

9)  Sheet(s).  Sheets are not provided at the dormitory.  Bring a second one to sleep on top of if you want, remember weight when packing.

10)  Basic Essentials:  Knife, lighter, flashlight, spare batteries, ballpoint pen, first aid kit.

11)  Cash.  You will want some cash to buy cold soft drinks at Sirena and beers or pops at Carate.

One Day Ground Corcovado Tour

Hike the La Leona ranger station vicinity up to Madrigal River and inland.  Round trip by Carate colectivo.  Lunch, transport, park entrance fee, guide included:  1-2 people:  $100 each.  3-4:  $75 each.  more than four:  $65 each.  For Reservations or More Information

One-Day Air

Explore Sirena on a lagoon hike and a river canoeing trip.  Fly in at six a.m., depart three p.m.  $650 for up to four visitors, entrance fees, and lunch included.  For Reservations or More Information

Corcovado Park Reservation Service

Corcovado National Park has well marked trails, making a self-guided experience completely reasonable.  Choose your dates and do it without a guide.  We´ll make your reservations and process payments and give you receipts for day use fees, meal fees, and overnight camping or dorm housing.  Check the table earlier on this page for applicable rates, and let me know what you wish to include with all your dates.  Our fee is $25 for this service, and we provide you with all the receipts so that you can proceed directly to the Park without having to come to Puerto Jimenez to pay and retrieve your permits at the Ranger Station.  If you would like horses from La Palma to the Park Boundary, budget $20 per person.  Inquire here.  

If you prefer to handle your reservations personally, you can do so by telephone to the National Park Service in Puerto Jiménez (506-735-5036).  The park does not handle credit cards, but can process wire transfers and direct deposit into their Costa Rican bank account.  Many people who reserve directly find out awkwardly that they have to come to Puerto Jimenez to pay and retrieve their permits.  If you do this, be sure to do it between 8:30 and 3:30, Monday through Friday only.  

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