DRAKE BAY

A dirt road that begins about one km south of Rincón leads via the community of Rancho Quemado to Bahía Drake (pronounced “DRA-cay” locally), a large sweeping bay on northwest Osa. Laguna Chocuarco, near Rancho Quemado, is good for spotting crocodiles and tapirs (the Corcovado Agroecotourism Association, on the western side of Rancho Quemado, offers canoe trips).

Drake Bay extends southward below the mouth of the Río Sierpe, which provides the main access. A small village—Agujitas—lies at the southern end of the two-km-wide crescent bay, which is good for forays into Río Claro National Wildlife Refuge (eight km) and Corcovado National Park (13 km south), or to Caño Island, which dominates the view out to sea. The indigenous heritage is strong: the village is famous as one of only two places in Central America that make reverse-appliqué stitched molas (the other place is the San Blas islands in Panamá, where the work is far more ornate). Otherwise, it has changed little since the day in March 1579 when Sir Francis Drake sailed past Caño Island and anchored the Golden Hind in the tranquil bay that now bears his name.

The wilderness surrounding Drake Bay is replete with wildlife, including scarlet macaws. Humpbacks and other whale species pass by close to shore. There’s good snorkeling at the southern end of the bay, where a coastal trail leads to the mouth of the Río Agujitas, good for swimming and jungle exploration by canoe. You can follow a trail up the river canyon, which you cross by a suspension bridge, to Playa Cocalito (immediately south) and Playa Caletas (four km), where there’s a Blue Morphis Butterfly Farm (part of Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp). A paternoster of golden sand beaches lie farther south, ending at Playa Josecito on the edge of Corcovado National Park.

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Río Claro National Wildlife Refuge
This 500-hectare nature reserve sits above and behind Playa Caletas and Punta Marenco. The reserve forms a buffer zone for Corcovado National Park and is home to all four monkey species and other wildlife species common to Corcovado. The area’s 400-plus bird species include the scarlet macaw, great curassow, toucan, and several species of brightly colored tanagers, not least the endemic black-cheeked ant-tanager.

The Punta Marenco Lodge serves as a center for scientific research and welcomes ecotourists. Resident biologists lead nature hikes ($35).

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Sports and Recreation
All the lodges can arrange scuba diving, snorkeling, sportfishing, horseback rides, and jungle hikes into Corcovado National Park or Caño Island. Scuba divers must bring their own buoyancy compensators and regulators.

Corcovado Expeditions (tel. 506/396-7774, corcovadoexpeditions@hotmail.com), in Agujitas, offers tours to Corcovado ($50), Isla Caño ($55), and the Terraba mangroves ($70), as well as dolphin-spotting tours ($75), poison frog tours ($20), and birding ($20).

The Original Canopy Tour (tel. 506/257-5149 in San José, www.canopytour.com/drake.html) lets you explore the rainforest canopy from seven platforms, a suspended walkway, and four traverse cables that permit you to soar between treetops suspended in a harness; $45 adults, $35 students, $25 children.

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Information and Services
In Agujitas, the pulpería (el. 506/771-2336) has the only public telephone; everyone else in town communicates via radio. The Hospital Clínica Biblica is by the beach in Agujitas.

Drake Bay Tourist Information Office (tel. 506/387-9138) is in Agujitas.

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Getting There
Both Sansa (tel. 506/257-9414, www.grupotaca.com) and Nature Air (tel. 506/220-3054, www.natureair.com) provide scheduled air service to Agujitas. You can charter a small plane to Drake Bay. Alfa Romeo charges $245 for up to four passengers.

The dirt road from Rincón via Rancho Quemado (there’s bus service from Rincón) is sometimes impassable in wet season—the main stumbling block is the Río Drake, which must be forded.

Boats travel downriver to Drake Bay from Sierpe. The trip takes two hours down the jungle-draped Río Sierpe ($15 pp). Lodges arrange transfers for guests. Corcovado Expeditions (see above) offers boat transfers to Sierpe ($15 pp) and to Corcovado ($150 boat charter).