Route Description - Ocean & Rainforest Adventures Costa Rica
Costa Rica Oceans and Rainforest Adventure: Caño Island diving plus Piedras Blancas and Osa Peninsula National Parks. This serves as the ideal pre or post-Cocos extension, seamlessly blending diving with several days of rainforest exploration led by your onboard naturalist. Following beach landings from the inflatables, you’ll be on the lookout for four different species of monkeys, flocks of scarlet macaws, sloths, toucans, frogs, snakes, and so much more.
Day 1: The Nautilus Explorer will be berthed in Marina Bahia Golfito. It’s beautiful. Boarding will begin after 6:30 pm, and we will sail by 8 pm to Corcovado National Park.
Day 2: Caño Island is an excellent visit and your trip starts out with a heavy day of diving or snorkelling, and kayaking. The island is a protected national park and it’s beautiful. In previous years there's been great luck with humpback whale encounters and divers saw hammerhead, white and black-tip reef sharks, mobula and cow nose rays, southern stingrays, moray eels, schooling barracuda, sea turtles, and loads and loads of fish along with coral reefs and a mix of pinnacles, walls, and drop-offs.
Day 3-5: For the next 3 days, you will be based out of Drake Bay and the Osa Peninsula, mixing it up with a combination of cool shore expeditions plus more diving, snorkelling, and kayaking. Nearby Corcovado National Park is one of the most pristine parks in Costa Rica, including beautiful deserted white sand beaches, old-growth forests, and the chance for rarely seen animals. It’s wet, rugged and remote.
It’s the only place in Costa Rica where you can see 4 different species of monkeys, including the highly endangered red-backed squirrel monkey. Your naturalist is amazing at spotting nearby critters, which might include wild pigs, tapirs, flocks of Scarlett macaw parrots, sloths, and crocodiles in the largest mangroves in Central America. While you won’t see them all, the park is home to 40 species of frogs, more than 100 species of butterflies, and over 375 species of birds, including 16 species of hummingbirds.
Going ashore is like being in a fantasy where you land on the beach by inflatable boat for a hike in the rainforest and waterfalls to emerge onto another beautiful sand beach with your crew waiting with drinks and snacks at the ready.
Day 6: Arrival back at the Golfito marina by 5 am for those catching the early morning Sansa flight. Early breakfast and 7 am departure for guests heading back to San Jose in our courtesy shuttle (to arrive SJO by 1 pm latest). Or a more leisurely 8:30 am disembarkation for this who are staying on in Golfito or heading off for another adventure in one of the nearby national parks.