The Pearl of the Osa activities

Scheduling and Transportation for Tours Many of the activities will take you to different parts of the peninsula. Round trip 4X4 ground transportation to and from the 'The Pearl' is generally not included in the tour price. Tours are paid in cash or travelers checks to the tour guides at the completion of the tour.

There is nothing quite like hiking through a primary forest...with monkeys and big cats, sloths, anteaters, and birds of all kinds. There are paths through this area that are unbelievably pristine and wild. Combine that with some waterfall repelling or cave exploration and you have quite an exciting day. Many different tour companies, as well as local taxi drivers, offer a variety of hikes and tours through this magnificent jungle.

Some companies even guarantee sighting of monkeys...we have four kinds here in the Osa: the Cara Blanca (white face monkey), the Colorado (spider monkey), the comical Tse Tse (squirrel monkey) and the boisterous Black Howler monkey called the Congo.

Macaw parrots abound in this area along with Toucans, Giant Iguanas, Sloths, Poison Dart Frog and others. Giant trees and plants look like they are from another planet, not to mention the most bizarre insects you will ever see. Camera buffs should bring long lens and fast film as the lighting inside the forest is low.

Bird Watching - Serious twitchers flock to the Osa, where they can hope to see dozens of exotic species. Neo-tropical migrants journey south from their North American breeding grounds in the fall months September thru November. Species such as Warblers, Flycatchers, Thrushes, Orioles and Tanagers swell in multitude during these months.

Many long distance migrants pass at least half the year here and can be viewed not as northern birds escaping winters chill, but as tropical birds who go north to breed. The northward exodus begins in March and continues with greater intensity into May. Even so, you are able to encounter resident species of the tropics all year long.

A few of our native birds include: Trogans, Antbirds, Woodcreepers, Toucans, and a vast population of Amazon Parrots and Scarlet Macaws. Still an amazing site is the daily display of numerous Scarlet Macaws flying around the town of Puerto Jimenez.

Bird watching tours can easily arranged, and walking around the area often provides plenty of photo opportunities for bird lovers. Tours can also be arranged targeting your particular interests (i.e. Birds of Prey, Shorebirds, Songbirds, Old Growth Dependents, or Exotics.) The best time of day is early morning or late afternoon. Normally, the tours will last around 4 hours but we can customize a tour for you if you wish.

Two of the best tours for fabulous bird watching...include traveling in a boat up the pristine Rio Esquinas with a native English-speaking guide...at last count 55 species were spotted in one day.

Sea kayaking is a lot of fun and for all ages and abilities. Trips range from ocean kayaking and "shooting the arch" at Cape Matapalo to mellow cruises up an exotic peaceful mangrove river and a sunset watch for dolphins in the mystical luminescent waters of the Golfo Dulce. Whatever your level of adventure may be kayaking is a fabulous way to see the Osa Peninsula. Guides and pricing depend on the type of trip you choose.

Also have kayaks that you can use at the lodge at no cost.

The Pearl of the Osa Beach Resort is one of several sponsors of the Save the Osa Turtle Project (ASTO). On our beautiful six mile beach five species of turtles lay eggs. They are the Green, Black, Hawksbill, Olive Ridley, and occasionally the Leatherback Turtles (just spotted this last season.) From May through December these awesome beasts heave their bodies out of the pristine water of the Golfo Dulce to lay their hundred or so eggs on our beach. We work together with several other groups to watch after these turtles while they lay their eggs; then we care for the eggs in our nursery, and guard the baby turtles as they hatch and the little ones run into the sea.

Last year over 15,000 baby turtles were released by our hatchery! Often from May through December, late at night or early in the morning you can see the turtles laying their eggs or the babies clambering out of their nests!

If you have an interest in participating in this project on a fairly long term basis, let us know. We donate food and lodging to volunteers who are interested in helping out on this project. We are also in search of technical support for our project...so if you happen to be a turtle expert or know one, tell us everything we ever wanted to know about turtles!.

Experience the adrenaline rush of ascending into the canopy via ropes and pulleys to enjoy a view from a most spectacular height...or repelling along side (or right down through) a jungle waterfall. Or climb up inside a huge Matapalo tree and ring then bell...then repel down. There are various folks that can take you with them for a truly grand adventure...prices range from $35 to $75 per person. You will often see a myriad of wildlife along the way. Your master guide will provide all the equipment.

All experience levels can participate...our daughter did this when she was 10. They recently had one of our favorite guests, 'Dan the Man', at age 81 repelling down a series of four waterfalls, with his guide who is a captain on the Rainbow Warrior for Greenpeace. Our guests unanimously rate this particular tour a "10".

The Osa Peninsula is famous for its gold. Before they designated the Corcovado area into a National Park, many families were gold miners...and making a pretty good living at it too. Now the gold mining is shut down in the park but gold mining continues.

So head up to Dos Brazos where you can meet the local gold miners and the lady who runs the pulperia. She has a scale and the little kids run to buy eggs and milk with gold.

There are several organized tours that can get you gold mining. And some even guarantee you will find some. A local tour company describes their tour below: Come find some gold with us in one of the many gold bearing creeks and rivers of the Osa Peninsula. Finding gold nuggets like these takes work but you will have an opportunity buy some from the locals. Upon your arrival to the site, you will be provided a pan and lessons on how to wash the material. You keep what you find!

Offshore big game is the specialty in the area with sailfish being the most predominant species. We practice catch and release for billfish so bring your camera and lots of film. The high season for offshore is our summer which starts in December and lasts through May. Calm seas and short runs to the fishing grounds are typical this time of year. We normally catch several sails a day along with Dorado, Tuna, Blue Runner, Wahoo, Skipjack and Bonito. The month of May is when the rains begin, usually in the afternoons. This is when the bigger schools of Yellow fin Tuna and Dorado move in along with the giant Black and Blue Marlin! Sailfish are still around but not in quantity. Up until September weather is reasonably calm with some rain but little wind.

Last season some friends found themselves catching more sailfish than they ever dreamed, while amidst a pod of about 50 humpback whales... manta rays and dolphins were leaping out of the water...not bad eh?

Jimbo, another friend, (pictured above with large rooster fish before he fell off the boat) and others from Florida's fishing areas tell us that their fishing trip was "... the best fishing trip of their lives."

Inshore fishing is excellent year round. Topping the list is the world class rooster fishing. Also in abundance are several species of jacks and snappers including jack crevelle, blue fin crevelle jack, amberjack, pompano, big dog tooth snapper, large pacific barracuda, sierra mackerel and grouper. Normally live bait s used for inshore fishing and t is almost always available and is best for catching the bigger fish. Fly fishing popular too.

Fishing Packages can be designed as you like, but here are some examples:

Through the Primordial Forest

There are a variety of great horseback rides around the Osa. Our personal favorite is a fabulous ride through gorgeous primary forest, a lunch stop at a local Tica house, and then a ride down the river to see how many shades of green there really are in this jungle. Recent guests spotted 3 types of monkeys, a sloth, anteater, toucans and numerous exotic birds on this great primordial adventure.

You can also gallop down our endless sandy beach with a great guide named Luis who brings the horses right here to the beach.

The trip begins at the docks of Puerto Jimenez where you head across the Golfo Dulce searching for dolphins, turtles whales and whale sharks. You will travel by boat north through the Gulf to a remote palm studded beach, only accessible by boat; go ashore and visit the fantastic botanical garden and farm of Casa Orquideas. At Casa Orchideas meet Ron and Trudy MacAllister (and possibly their children) who have lived here for over 20 years. Self taught botanists, Ron and Trudy escort you through their magnificent gardens and farm that will spotlight the incredible diversity of tropical plants. Their gardens and farm sit in the spectacular back drop of high hills and primary forest that rise from the Golfo Dulce. The two to three hour tour covers an amazing array of plants and topics from the wide variety of orchids, heliconias, bromeliads, palms, to the practical and useful plants such as vegetables, fruits, spices, and medicinal plants to the unusual such as miracle fruit, the gourd tree, and the cannonball tree.

This is not just a looking at the "flowers" tour. Touch, taste and smell the plants and fruits When you come across the Ylang-ylang we will instantly recognize the famous scent of Channel #5 and a base for numerous perfumes. There is nothing like the fresh smell of vanilla beans or ginger root. You will get to taste some of the unusual exotic fruits such as star fruit, the sweet pulp around the chocolate seeds, and the pulp around the magic seed which transforms the taste of lemons from sour to sweet.

This is truly a fascinating tour. You will learn about the unique and various ways tropical plants compete and reproduce. No one will forget the pelican flower with its labyrinth passageways that will trap insects for several days and then release them, all in the pursuit of reproduction. We highly recommend this as a half day tour. If you are interested in an all day trip we recommend combining this tour with the pristine Rio Esquinas Tour. Price : Casa Orquideas Tour is $5.00 per person (what a deal!), but does not include round trip boat transportation which varies depending on the number of people (price is approximately $100 to hire boat).

There are a variety of massages available down here in the Osa. From DEEP body work to shiatsu and Swedish, occasional acupuncture treatment or genuine sports massage, we are not missing anything living down here in the jungle. They also can provide relaxing manicures, pedicures...and would you believe mud mask treatments with the mud coming from right here on the Peninsula? Most massages run about $40 an hour.