our room at Lookout Inn--still with no walls but it did have very fancy mosquito nets.
The majority of our time in Costa Rica was spent at the house we rented but we also imagined using that as a home base in the Osa Peninsula. And we did. As the crow flies, our house was only a few miles from Corcovado National Park--one of the more remote of Costa Rica's many national parks. If you look into it, you'll see that most park visitors seem to backpack in on a full day hike to the Sirena Ranger Station and stay a few nights. Needless to say, with a four-year-old a 20 kilometer backpacking trip was off the table.
But still, we wanted to see the park. Luckily, we happened to meet a guide while we were having lunch in Porto Jimenez and he mentioned he worked at a hotel in Carate so we got their number from an old guide book, called them up and made it happen.
Yes, you can at least get a taste of Corcovado with a family. If you aren't already in the region, I'd actually rent a car and just drive to Carate (literally, the end of the road--that's what the word means--it's a beach with a few hotels, certainly not a city). Since we didn't have a car, we took the "Collectivo." a converted cattle truck. For $9/person (kids 3 and under are free so they gave Oscar a pass) they'll drive you the almost 2 hours over a dirt road and drop you off at, you guessed it, the end of the road.
The Collectivo was actually pretty fun when you stood up front and looked at the scenery.
Once there we spent three nights at Lookout Inn and they were wonderful. You're basically forced into paying for all your meals on top of your room reservation but it's worth it. There aren't any restaurants in Carate nor any grocery stores (supplies come in on the Collectivo with the tourists and locals) and Juan Carlos, the chef, cooks up some delicious food. At Lookout Inn we simply hired them to get our permits to the park and to provide us the required guide. The park only costs about $15/day/adult but the permit process seems laborious and you must also hire a local guide for about $100/day. Going through the hotel saved us the hassle and was worth the $65/person fee.
We left the hotel at about 6:30 a.m. and got a ride to the really, really end of the road. From there we hiked a mile or two on trails and beach to the ranger station. That part of the hike was actually wonderful--we saw an anteater! And a whole bunch of orange and black crabs and a family of coati.
At the Ranger Station you sign in and get your permits stamped and then go into the park. Which seems exactly like the trail leading up to the park if I'm being honest. We hiked another two miles or so in the park to the first river. And there we saw a tapir! We picnicked where the river flowed into the ocean and watched pelicans (and a lot of college age tourists stopping for a swim on their way to Sirena). Still, it felt amazingly remote and wild. This article is pretty accurate (though the charter flight part is really just for folks who are expensing their trip to the NYT)
TL;DR If you go to Costa Rica, check out Corcovado and if you aren't up for the backpacking, use Lookout Inn in Carate as a launch point. Highly recommend.
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