Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp

Hotel Inspection September 2nd - 4th, 2011

Osa Peninsula in the Southern Pacific

We moved to Costa Rica in June and made some new friends fairly quickly and they suggested that we go spend a week-end down on the Osa Peninsula in the Southern Pacific part of this beautiful country. Considered one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet and the last frontier in Costa Rica, we put a group together and decided to do a package with the Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp, on the Osa Peninsula, near Drake Bay and it was some adventure . My wife and I love to camp, but in our mid 50’s now, sleeping on the ground even with an air mattress is not nearly as appealing at the double bed, in the hard wood floored and mosquito proof enclosure that we had at the Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp. In fact you could zip the entire tent cabin up and yet still have screens where we could sleep to the lullaby of ocean waves and see the beautiful grounds at day and stars at night.

Drake Bay

The adventure started miles and hours away in the sleepy little town of Sierpe, just a few miles off the Pan American Highway along the banks of the Rio Sierpe. There was a quaint little restaurant on the riverfront where we sipped drinks and ate snacks and waited for our boats to arrive and take us to Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp. Once on the boat we snaked through the jungle on our way to the Pacific ocean getting up close and personal with some crocodiles on the way. As we approached the Pacific I could see from a distance the white spray of river clashing with the ocean and I became a little worried. It was exciting to watch, and clearly an art to maneuver these boats through the huge swells and waves to get us out of the river and into Drake Bay in the Pacific.

Corcovado National Park

Greeted on the beach by Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp staff, we unloaded our stuff and headed to the dining room for our brief orientation, going over the facilities, meal times, whale watching & snorkeling tour details for the following day, and of course our Costa Rican Jungle Lodge accommodations. While all of the tent cabins face the ocean, we were lucky enough to get one of the two cabins that border the creek that feeds into the ocean on the property. During high tide the following morning our cabin was literally 5 feet from the water! After we put our stuff in our luxury tents we headed out on one of the many hiking trails along the coast looking for wildlife (monkeys in particular) and viewing stretches of pristine beaches where we might go body surfing. If you kept walking you would eventually end up at Corcovado National Park, one of the country’s crown jewels.

Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp

The meals at Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp were good and there was plenty of food and drink. Our adventure peaked the following day when we were treated to a half a dozen huge, and I mean huge humpback whales and their calves. It was a breathtaking scene and we were blessed with a momma whale teaching her baby how to slap their tails (not sure what for), but it looked playful and it sure made big splashes, and we got some great photos to remember the experience. We also got to snorkel off the coast of Cano Island where we had lunch, and we were treated to many impressive schools of colorful fish along some coral reefs. Some of the younger group members wanted to snorkel a second time after lunch, but the older folks stayed behind and body surfed off this most scenic island.