Just got back from this. Drove from San Jose to San Gerardo de Dota in the mountains, then out to Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula with a day trip out to Sirena ranger station in Corcovado. Then drove up to Manuel Antonio and back to San Jose. A short 5-6 days, but lots of fun.
Some tips this time around to add to my tips in the OP:
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In spite of every site on the internet and every guidebook telling you you’re mad to drive to Drake Bay, particularly in the rainy season, because of bad roads and dangerous river crossings, you totally can drive to Drake Bay and it’s no problem. Within the past year, the government completed a multi-million dollar project to add bridges across all the river crossings, and paved most of the road from Route 2 to the coast. (The last 25km or so remain unpaved and would be difficult without a high-clearance vehicle.) There are no unbridged river crossings and the road is relatively easy (for Costa Rica.) I drove it not only in the rainy season, but in a heavy rain late in one of the rainiest days in the past couple of weeks.
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Manuel Antonio is a shitshow: parking scams, touts, and just waayyyy too many people for such a small nature park. Yes, you can see sloths and iguanas and capuchins. But I suggest those animals are also visible in many other less crowded parks throughout the country. It’s convenient to San Jose and the nearby town of Quepos has a kind of party atmosphere, so it could be a fun visit if you’re there to just walk through the park, watch the capuchins try to steal stuff from tourists, hang out at the beach, and party. We hired a guide, and he was really good at seeing and pointing out various birds and insects, but being with a guide meant we were also with crowds and no chance to get away from them. If I were to do it again (which I probably won’t), I’d just walk through the park at my own pace and away from the crowds, then plan to chill on the beach.
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Nauyaca Falls, a few km up the mountain from Dominical, is an up-and-coming attraction that I predict will be too busy to enjoy in 2-3 years. The falls are on private property. Previously it’s only been accessible via a 2.5 mile hike (each way) managed by the family that owns the property, but now there’s another family that owns property on the other side of the river and they’ve set up a really elaborate trolley system to ferry tourists by 4WD tractor down (very) steep roads to much closer to the falls: 1/4 mile walk down a well maintained trail system. It’s all very well and tastefully done, with hammocks and picnic tables and showers down at the bottom, and a bar and pool table up at the top. We got there at the end of the day and were the last group there, so we had the falls to ourselves. And it truly is one of the most spectacular falls I’ve seen: remote, primeval, and awe inspiring.
View from near the summit of Cerro de la Muerte on Route 2, which at about 11,000’ is the highest point along the entire 19,000 mile length of the Pan-American Highway.
Waiting to board the boat to Corcovado’s Sirena Ranger Station on the beach in Drake Bay. Boat launches were wet. There’s no dock, so you have to wade out from the beach to board.
The boat ride was an hour of leaping waves in a small, crowded craft. But the payoff at the end was a few hours of the best nature observation I’ve ever experienced. We saw peccaries, sloths, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, coatis, a currasow, boat billed heron, and lots of other birds, butterflies, lizards, etc. The highlight was when we picked our way carefully through a thicket of coastal shrubbery to observe a tapir sleeping away the heat of the day.
The center of Drake Bay from our restaurant balcony
My son wading in the pool below Nauyaca Falls
A view of the upper section of the falls
