The Osa Peninsula contains 2.5% of the earth's biodiversity!It’s jungle safari day in Costa Rica!  During our stay on the Osa Peninsula, we visited Parque Nacional Corcovado (Corcovado National Park), which is a must see while in the country.  The park is located on the western side of the Osa Peninsula and is described by National Geographic as “the most biologically intense place on the planet”!  Corcovado has 150 species of butterflies, 400 species of birds, 124 species of mammals, more than 5,000 plants, and 550 distinct kinds of trees!  It was a great day and an experience we’ll never forget.

A couple of days before, we visited a tour agency in Puerto Jimenez to hire a local guide, which was highly recommended.  Guides have an innate ability to hear, smell and sense the animals in the park, which help tourists spot them before they scurry off and hide.  We were fortunate to have  had Luis, one of the park’s original guides born on the Osa Peninsula, take us on a one-day 16 kilometer hike through the wilds of this incredible place.  Through him and our online research, we learned about the history of the park, the animals who call Corcovado home and the park’s conservation efforts.

Gorgeous scarlet macaws Corcovado can only be accessed by plane, horseback or by foot, so we drove our rental car to Carate where the main road ends.  From Carate, we walked along the beach to La Leona Ranger Station to enter the park.  Once inside, Luis helped us spot countless scarlet macaws flying in pairs from almond tree to almond tree enjoying their breakfast.  They fly in pairs because they mate for life and go everywhere together.

As the day progressed, we got to see two anteaters, several clans of white-nosed coatis, three different types of monkeys (squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys and white-faced capuchins), an owl, a toucan, several hawks, a lineated woodpecker, and a poisonous dart frog!