Things to do
NATURE
400 bird species. 700 trees. 10,000 different insects. Wildlife may have been on your bingo card, but you’ll need a big one for Osa Peninsula. At last count, 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity can be found on this tiny peninsula that takes up merely three-millionths of the planet. In Corcovado National Park guided lowland jungle treks and mangrove journeys will live long in the memory. That shake you see in the fig trees? A giant anteater waking from his slumber. That corner-of-your-eye swoop? The enormous harpy eagle.
WATER
A vast number of Costa Rican creatures are residents of Golfo Dulce. A little like the fjords in the tropics, this is where newborn whale calves learn the way of the ocean from their mothers. Where poison dart frogs blend into the green of the foliage. And where rich rainforest meets the sea. Charter a boat at dusk to glimpse the bioluminescent glow of the water – as though lit by underwater fairy lights. Or get close to pura vida in the Carboneras and King Louis Waterfalls.
BEACHES
Rest days rarely get better than pitching up at a palm-fringed castaway beach in Costa Rica. Be one of the few to leave footprints in the sand of Playa Platanares and Playa San Josecito, keeping a weather eye out for Sir Francis Drake’s buried treasure. Catch point break when the surf’s up at Matapalo – or novice-friendly Playa Pan Dulce. Or step into waters off Punta Adela and Belina Beach to snorkel into an underwater Eden.
