Golfo Dulce and the Osa Peninsula

Costa Rica’s southwesternmost region is a distinct oblong landmass, framed on its east by the Fila Costeña mountain chain and indented in the center by a vast gulf called Golfo Dulce [1]. Curling around the gulf to the north is the mountainous, hook-shaped Peninsula de Osa [2] and, to the south, the pendulous Peninsula de Burica [3].

Nature lovers with a taste for the remote and rugged will be in their element. A seamless expanse of rainforest enfolds the few towns and scattered settlements, many of them small beach communities beloved by diehard surfers.

Star billing goes to the Osa Peninsula [2], smothered in a vast wilderness filled with the stentorian roar of howler monkeys, the screeches of scarlet macaws, and the constant dripping of water. Much of the jungle—a repository for some of the nation’s greatest wildlife treasures—is protected within a series of contiguous parks and reserves served by remote jungle lodges.

The region is the largest gold source in the country, as it has been since pre-Columbian times. In the early 1980s, gold fever destroyed thousands of hectares of the Osa forests: The physical devastation was a deciding factor in the creation of Corcovado National Park [4]. Rivers such as the Tigre and Claro still produce sizeable nuggets, and former gold miners have turned to eco-tourism and today lead visitors on gold-mining forays.

The waters of the Golfo Dulce [1] are rich in game fish, and the area is popular for sportfishing. Whales occasionally call in, and three species of dolphin—bottle-nosed, black spotted, and spinner—frolic in the gulf, which is charged by luminescent microbes after sunset. Though the gulf is protected and relatively calm, surfers flock for the ripping waves that wash the southeast tip of the Osa Peninsula and push onto the beaches of the Burica Peninsula [3], where indigenous communities exist in isolation within the mountains. Offshore to the southwest is craggy, desolate Cocos Island [5].

This is one of Costa Rica’s wettest regions. Be prepared for rain and a lingering wet season: the area receives 4–8 meters of rain annually! Violent thunderstorms move in October–December.

The government plans to build an international airport in the region.

The Best of Golfo Dulce [6]

• Terraba–Sierpe Wetland Reserve [7]
• Drake Bay [8]
• Corcovado National Park [4]
• Playa Zancudo [9]
• Pavones [10]
• Cocos Island National Park [5]