Corcovado National Park, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

5SteppinN 5:00 PM Jan 5, 2020

Sirena Station, lovely day hiking with lunch on Jan 3
We took a boat ride from our lodge to get here that took about an hour on Jan 3. We did see tapirs (mother and child) just walking straight at us on the trail!, an anteater, agoutis, coati, all manner of birds, including the potoo, crested owl, and black throated trogan, monkeys, crocodiles, Jesus Christ lizards, and primary and secondary forest. All the boats arrive together, we were luckily in before I think 4 other very full boats from Drake Bay area arrived. You need sandals or flip flops to land at this beach, and then your hiking boots. As of the first week of January, yes it is muddy in some spots but you don't need full mudders now, good hiking boots will suffice. There is a rinse off spot and a picnic table at the landing spot, which worked for our small group, but it was quite a scrum for the other boat loads who were all there at once. The tides and the rangers dictate when you can arrive and leave. There are a few trails here, that your guide will take you on. The guides do well to distribute the groups about, so that everyone is not on top of each other. Your lunch, in the field clearing of an old air strip and secondary forest, is at the ranger station, which is quite rustic, feels like a boy scout camp building, but which they have recently updated with what looks like camp lodging for the hardy or researchers. The lunch we had was traditional tico fare, served buffet style, which actually tasted quite good and better than it looked. The trails are all flat. Of course, while this park is biologically intense and large, you will not be covering that much ground in your 4-5 hours of hiking, so remember that your entry fare is supporting the whole of the park and its existence and the existence of its flora and fauna in the case that your expectations exceed your reality (or forest luck).Our guide reported that even if you are there for an overnight visit, no night hiking is allowed.

4Cori R 5:00 PM Mar 23, 2022

Beautiful Park with lots of wildlife
We visited both the Sirena Ranger Station and the San Pedrillo Ranger station and enjoyed getting to see the Park. Sirena was a little more enjoyable because we felt like we could go deeper into the park and feel like we were in the rain forest. You have to have a guide and the guided tours limit you on where you can go and when. This does help with controlling crowds but we were with a guide and about 8 in the tour. We saw a lot of wildlife at Sirena. The highlight is the Tapir. I think it must be a resident Tapir that makes a daily walk to the mudhole for rest since most people get a chance to see it but it was really great to see an animal I have not had a chance to see. We also saw an anteater, coati's, Agoutis, and some birds. I liked our guide for Sirena (he was knowledgeable and showed us a lot). Our guide for San Pedrillo was a nice person but clearly did not want to lead this tour. We did not see much at San Pedrillo but that could have been our guide. These tours do fill up fast and you have to take a boat to each of the stations. I wish we could have hired a private guide and went and spent more time going deeper into the forest but I also realize they are trying to protect this area. Birding was not great here and we saw more birds on our own around Drake Bay then here. I am glad we went to see this magnificent place but for birding, I enjoyed other parks in Costa Rica. The boat ride to Sirena was about an hour and the boat ride to San Pedrillo was about 30 minutes. We did see dolphins on the boat ride out. San Pedrillo they had us mainly walk next to the beach but at the end they take everyone to a waterfall where you can jump in and cool off. This was very nice to cool off before heading back to drake bay. I recommend seeing this place but if you want to bird, another destination may be better. Other note: The walk was really flat at both places (with the exception at San Pedrillo's walk to the waterfall). Almost everyone was in tennis shoes and shorts. I wore heavy hiking boots and long pants due to friends advice and wish I had shorts with bug spray and light hikers or tennis shoes. Bring lots of water though. My sister did not bring enough so we rationed water which worked but it is hot and humid.