ADVENTURES

The Osa Peninsula has something for everyone - high impact, low impact, wild and crazy, a comfortable stroll, swinging through trees, running for your life from wild peccaries:  there are many ways to experience the Osa.

Local guides, many with biology backgrounds and all of whom live down here and adore the Osa for one reason or many, will give you a bird's eye view of our peninsula. Agua Dulce Lodge doesn't typically offer our own tours, but recommends to you the best and brightest in tour guides. We do this for several reasons: first, the best guides have developed their own businesses; second, farming out this work puts more money into the community; and third, we have enough to do without also owning boats, climbing equipment, etc.

Many activities will take you to different parts of the peninsula. Round trip 4X4 ground transportation to and from the lodge is generally not included in the tour price.

Fishing / Eco Tour Packages

Tours and Activities

Self-Guiding Beach:  The town beach is very placid and unacceptable for body-surfers though absolutely excellent for parents with very young children as the waters are very tranquil.  Five kilometers from town, Playa Platanares presents an extraordinary unspoiled tropical beach with all the wave action one could want for body-surfing.  You can actually reach Puntarenitas Point on foot from town in twenty minutes at low tide, but the best way to enjoy is to rent bicycles and ride out to Pearl of the Osa to enjoy the beach.  The wonderful Monochingo Bar and Grille offers the sun-weary a shaded breezy open-air space to regenerate and play ping pong and board games, ride the hammock, swill frostie pops and umbrellas, or all three.  Beach volleyball court, kilometers of unspoiled beach, horseback, monkeys, this place has got it all.

Self-Guided Mountain:  Dos Brazos del Rio Tigre is only a forty minute bus ride from town with three round trip rides a day and taxi service.  At the confluence of the two mouths of the Rio Tigre, Dos Brazos has a history closely intertwined with the gold mining industry.  In the eighties it was the headquarters of the commercial Rio Tigre mining operation.  Today, it retains a few hand miners, most of which make more money giving hand mining tours than actually mining the precious metal.  Dos Brazos is perilously close to the Corcovado National Park boundary and has extensive primary rain forest a short hike from the bus's arrival point.  Bird watching, gold mining, wilderness hiking, waterfalls, river swimming, horseback, all available in Dos Brazos, even for visitors overnighting in Jimenez.

HERRERA BOTANICAL GARDENS

Herrera Botanical Gardens and Reforestation Project.  Inaugurated in 2000, Herrera Botanical Gardens comprises 119 acres of secondary scrub and cattle land right on the outskirts of Puerta Jimenez under an innovative reforestation plan to draw animals in from the creek that transects the property with fast-growing orchard plantations and the much slower growing tropical hardwood plantings interspersed.  Kilometers of self-guiding trails, tree platforms, individual gardens, the best campground in the entire Southern Zone, Herrera has got it going on!  Guided:  $95/person for three hours (2 person minimum) Additional guests at $50/person. Can be arranged on site, no need to reserve.  Uncontested winner year after year of our pick for top ecotourism value anywhere!

MANGROVE KAYAKING

Mangrove Kayaking.  A three hour tour on sit-on-top individual sea kayaks.  The tour explores the Platanares River mangrove estuary and is timed around high tide.  The tour is around three and a half hours long and includes water and fruit.  Dry bags carried for protection of cameras.  Very close to town. Half Day: $50 per person (2 person minimum)

SUNSET DOLPHIN-WATCHING KAYAKING

Sunset Dolphin Watching Kayak.  A three o'clock departure allows a late afternoon kayak on the Gulf adjacent to Platanares Point for swimming and dolphin-watching on their daily trip southeast toward the Pacific.  Enjoy a six p.m. sunset and phosphorescent algae.  Three and a half hours, dry bags, refreshment. Half Day: $50 per person (2 person minimum)

MATAPALO DAY TOUR

Matapalo Rain Forest Hike.  This all-day tour in Cape Matapalo includes primary rain forest, wild life, waterfalls, and beach.  Departure 6 a.m., returns 3:30, transport, lunch included.  $95 per person (2 person minimum) 

BIRD-WATCHING

Bird Watching.  Most guides are familiar with the regional birds, but Liz Jones in the Dos Brazos area is the peninsula's foremost birder.  She leads birding expeditions mornings early from Bosque del Rio Tigre Lodge.  Half Day: $65 per person and Full Day: $95/person (2 person minimum)

HORSEBACK RIDING

Horseback Riding.  Horseback tours are available in all the areas of the peninsula by local outfitters.  Prices are typically Half Day: $75 per person and Full Day: $125/person (2 person minimum)

GOLFO DULCE MOTOR BOAT TOURS

Golfo Dulce Motor Boat Tours:  The Golfo Dulce is the tenth deepest gulf in the world and encompasses shorelines ranging from nearly vertical on the northeastern coast to mangrove swamps in the Esquinas corner and near Rincon.  Humpback whales calve in the Gulf, and whale sharks make annual pilgrimages into the still gulf waters.  Porpoises are a dime a dozen and can be come across in pods of hundreds of individuals.  Motor boat tours up to six hours in duration provide a spectacular low-impact activity.  Enjoy snorkeling and swimming.  The signature experience is with Changing Tide Tours which offers six hour tours for $95/person (2 person minimum)

GOLFO DULCE SCUBA DIVING TOURS AND CERTIFICATION

Golfo Dulce Diving Tour.  Highly experienced diving duo offers diving in different Golfo Dulce destinations.  One tank trips are $95 per person (four person minimum).

Corcovado National Park

Corcovado National Park is the largest of the 13 national parks that comprise the Costa Rica National Park system, its oft-heralded crown jewel.  Corcovado comprises a classic lowland tropical rain forest ecosystem but enjoys the diversity of the girding mountains.  Corcovado contains the largest expanse of contiguous tropical rain forest north of the Amazon Basin and owing to its presence along the isthmus separating North and South America has a biodiversity practically unrivaled on the planet. Prices are typically Half Day: $65 per person and Full Day: $95/person (2 person minimum)

The Park contains four ranger stations.  While San Pedrillo, La Leona, and Los Patos support camping only, Sirena Ranger Station, at the heart of the park, has dormitory style accommodations and three prepared meals a day.  Sirena stays booked well in advance, so all planned excursions into the park should be reserved in advance to ensure dorm space and food at Sirena.  Otherwise, you can still go and camp, though there is a limit on the camping permits also.  Frequently during our high season, the Park is "closed" because it has a bunch of people visiting.  This means that the ranger station in town does not issue permits.  It is not necessarily really closed, however, to campers with their own food.

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