Corcovado National Park – Visit The Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica
Corcovado National Park (Parque Nacional Corcovado) is known as the Amazon of Costa Rica. With good reason. This tiny park, just 42,000 hectares (about 100,000 acres) in size, is found on the Osa Peninsula, located along the south Pacific coast of Costa Rica, close to the Panama border. It is the largest remaining primary forest in Central America.
In 1502, Christopher Columbus explored the Americas along the Caribbean from Mexico south to a land he called Costa Rica, the rich coast (you may have heard the name!). Spectacular, verdant tropical forests covered the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Wildlife was incredibly abundant back then. Indeed, there were so many sea turtles that mariners, lost in the fog, relied upon the sounds of tens of thousands of them paddling towards nesting beaches to find land. The passing of five centuries has been unkind to both the forests and animals and today most of the primary forests from Mexico to South America have been cut down or burned. Fortunately, Costa Rica showed good sense and preserved Corcovado.
Some 75 years after Columbus landed its Caribbean coast and named it Costa Rica, the English sea captain, Sir Frances Drake (the same one who destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588, saving England from Spain), explored its Pacific coast and, in fact, landed at a lovely bay on the north end of the Osa Peninsula which is now called Drake Bay in his honor. If you visit Corcovado, you will probably do so from the very same bay Sir Frances did.
Corcovado is very tiny (not small, tiny), less than 160 square miles in size. That is about 20 miles long and 8 miles deep. Tiny. Even so, it is incredible. Described as ‘the most biologically intense place’ on earth by National Georgraphic, it is largely unspoiled and the single largest surviving rain forest situated on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to South America. The mangroves and other biodiverse areas of Corcovado protect an incredible array of plants and animals. There are 139 species of mammals, including the mighty jaguar, puma, ocelot, and three other kinds of wild cats. You will also find 400 different species of birds (the entire continent of Europe has 1000 species and the continental U.S. has 900) living in an area less than half the size of New York City! The largest remaining Central America population of scarlet macasws live here, along with 116 kinds of amphibians and reptiles. ‘Intense” is exactly right: 10% of all the different kinds of mammals in the whole of the Americas are found here—in a park less than 1/20th the size of Yellowstone National Park.
Rare frogs such as the red-eyed tree frog, poison-arrow frog and the enigmatic glass frog are all found here. And this park is one of only a handful of sites in Costa Rica where you will find squirrel monkeys. At night, fishing bats literally scoop fish from the rivers.
At Corcovado, you will find miles of apparently deserted beaches. I say apparently because these beaches provide nesting grounds for huge leatherback (weighing more than half a ton), Pacific Ridley, green and hawksbill sea turtles. Tapirs are plentiful and provide food for ferocious jaguars and crocodiles. The spoor of these large cats is regularly found in the muddy trails around the Corcovado Lagoon and they are also sighted frequently. Bring your camera and stay alert!
The forests of Corcovado are as impressive as the rainforests of the Amazon, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This area receives as much as 400 cm or rain annually and torrential rains fall during the April to December months. It is best for visitors to plan a trip to Corcovado in the dry months which are January to April.
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- Costa Rica Medical Tourism: World Class Accredited Hospitals And Exquisite, Affordable Medical Care In Costa Rica
- Costa Rica Real Estate – Weathering The Storm
- Take a Tropical Rainforest Vacation to Costa Rica