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Getting in to Corcovado

1/5/14

Apparently just getting in to Corcovado is a journey all its own. In my research beforehand, I had found that this was one of the coolest places to go, and one of the only places suitable for a good three day backpacking hike. Also in my research I saw there was no clear way to get into the park. Buses. Taxi. Private shuttle. Airplane. Boat. You could buy tickets at this office, but it somehow involved wiring money to a bank? That seemed weird. Or you could book a tour. Some places said it required a guide. Others did not. Online, it felt like a wash, so I decided to figure it out when I got there – surely things would be more clear then.

Except not. Here’s what I was able to find out. To get into any national park is $10 per day. It is then $4 to camp at La Sirena and $8 to have a bed in the lodge. Plus money for meals. Only a limited number of people are allowed in the park per day and sometimes it fills up fast, especially if you want to stay overnight. To get a pass directly from the Park organization, you have to go to their office, get a ticket, walk 15 minutes across town to the bank to pay the fee, then walk back and officially get your pass. The office opens at 8am, and this whole process probably takes 30-45 minutes. If there’s a line, there goes your whole morning. Besides how ridiculous all that sounds, the bank is closed on weekends so there is no way to get tickets on those days and the $8 shuttle service leaves at 6am, two hours before the office to get the tickets even opens. Sometimes, therefore, the easier way is to book through a tour company who handles all of that for you. But often they like to charge at $20 “service fee” – and that’s before they even try and sell you a guide. One day trips started around $75, 3 day trips I saw priced between $400-$700. Be careful because some of these included transportation while others did not. If you miss the shuttle (which some companies like to conveniently not mention its existence) its easily an additional $40 for a cab ride to Carate. I have heard that sometimes they will tell you La Sirena is all booked up when actually the lodge is booked and there are plenty of tent camping sites. It’s hard to tell how accurate that is.

The border is also not technically at the park, but some 3 km before it. It’s a couple hour drive to Carate. And then a couple hour hike from Carate to the park’s border at La Leona. It’s 12 miles from La Leona to La Sirena, a distance I thought could easily be hiked in a day if I could stay at the ranger station overnight. Because it skirts the beach and is used fairly often, I was told this can probably be hiked without a guide. But I then wanted to cut across the park, off the coast and through the jungle, to the Los Patos ranger station. However, I was told that the trail in this area is much less clear, and should not be attempted without a guide or GPS. Between the trail’s unuse and old gold mining paths that criss-cross the actual trail, three different groups have had to have search parties come after them this year alone. One group has still not “officially” been found – but the guy assured me that they probably found a way out of the park, just not past the ranger station.

Great. Expensive guides, stories of missing bodies, impossible tickets to find. This trip had almost come to a halt. Several places told me no more tickets were left and tried to offer me other tours outside of the park. But that’s not what I came here for. After grilling some of the guys for a while and making it clear that I was going to stare at this map all day until something worked out, one of them said I could try flying in to La Sirena. OK, I’m listening. The pilot had bought up overnight tickets ahead of time for the busy season and was giving them away if you took a plane down instead of hike in. One guy in the tourist-info-sell-you-stuff center quoted me $130. A different guy at the same place told me to go directly to the airport and sort things out with the pilot myself. His quote was $26 cheaper. For $104 I get an $80 early morning flight into La Sirena, giving me an entire day to walk around on the trails near the station, plus the $24 in park fees ($10 x 2 days and $4 for one night of camping), so the next morning I can still hike, just on the safer trail out of the park, in time to catch the 4:30pm shuttle back to Puerto Jimenez. Let’s hope it works as planned. Again, more expensive than I had hoped, but not the end of the world – maybe even the best way to do it.

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1/4/14 – Getting to Osa

Despite getting very little sleep, I was up early, ready to figure out what to do with the day. San Jose was a transition city, the central location to catch a bus to your next destination. I navigated to the bus for Puerto Jimenez by myself, despite the hostel worker looking concerned while showing me the map. What is the chance muggers are both awake at 7am and around during my ten minute walk? I decided it was very minimal. I was also a little annoyed that the super nice girl that had helped me book the rafting trip was now pushing a private “tourist” bus on me in the $60 range when the normal $14 bus was one of the nicest I’ve ever been on.

Not knowing Spanish was a little tough. But playing charades helped. I successfully asked directions when the guy pointed to a bus and said “verde” and I knew what he meant! So, snaps for me. And I bought the ticket by just saying “Puerto Jimenez” in a spanishy way. But then my bus seat partner sat down and tried to have a whole conversation. It soon became clear that he knew about as much English as I knew Spanish. He had a six page printout of English phrases that did very little to heighten our communication, but did succeed in freaking me out. He first pointed to the phrase “I am going to my mother’s house.” Why that was one of a dozen phrases the pamphlet decided was important, I can not begin to know.  But, you know, that sounds nice, I guess I’m happy for you. Until he points to the phrase “Will you come with me?” Now I’m confused. You want me to come to your mother’s house? You want me to meet your mother? Or just come to your house? Whyyyy? 7.5 hours later the conversation had barely evolved. We laughed at the small child being obnoxious as hell in the seat in front of me (he thought it was adorable, I pretended to laugh as the kid threw food in every direction) and then he tried to invite me dancing downtown (I think – who knows what he said – maybe it was “you’re so screwed if you think you can survive without knowing even basic Spanish”). He got off a few stops before me, thank god. Hopefully I’ll have a quieter/english speaking/non-existent bus mate on the way back.

It may have been a long ride with a weird companion, but there were gorgeous views of the countryside at every turn – and the price could not be beat. Alas, pictures from buses are never the greatest, but I hope they capture some of the landscape.

The bus arrived on time (around 4pm) at Puerto Jimenez. I avoided the cab drivers by pretending to know what I was doing. This mostly involved sticking to the one paved road. I quickly bee-lined for the first sign promising wifi, coffee, and smoothies. I had made a reservation at the “only” place available in town – except glancing at the map, it clearly wasn’t really in town. With a smoothie in hand and wifi, I looked up the directions to see if they had a pick-up service and it miraculously said they would come by THIS CAFÉ every day at 5pm. Serendipity. Works every time. Until 5:30pm had come around and they still weren’t there. I tried to ask the staff but they had reassuringly never heard of the place. I walked down the road to the tourist office where I found English speakers who thankfully started making phone calls and for $10 I got a taxi ride up two back roads to Bello Horizonte Yoga Jungle Hostel.

It was…rustic. First off, what kind of name is that? My horrible Spanish translated it as beautiful horizontal yoga, which doesn’t bring the greatest image to mind – hopefully I just mis-translated and it’s actually the best name ever. But I don’t have my hopes up. The lodging is incredibly simple. A roof, bamboo supports, planks for the floor, bunk beds with mosquito nets. This simplicity was nice in many ways: the people staying there came together to talk and hang out and did not sequester themselves away in a room. You got to fall asleep and wake up immersed in the sounds of the jungle – howler monkeys barked nearby, insects chirped, and birds joined in chorus at dawn. But the $14 price was a little steep for such limited amenities and the location was 3km from town and for some reason the owner seemed weird about giving rides very often. Also, online it said they had wifi and were willing to help you make reservations for Corcovado. But the wifi was shaky at best and the owner sort of threw his hands up at dealing with getting into the park. Overall, this place makes me feel like I’m really immersed in Costa Rica, but there’s too many distractions to fully enjoy it yet.