Costa Rica 2011/2012 While there is much to tell about our two weeks of surfing and swimming at the northern and central Pacific shore (left picture), I focus in the following on our two weeks in the Southern Pacific region.   Peninsula de Osa shelters the Golfo Dulce from the surf of the Pacific. This region  not too far North of Panama is one of the most isolated and natural areas in Costa Rica. This peninsula is dominated by the Pacific lowland rainforest.

We loved our house with 3 acres (approx. 1 hectar) of well maintained tropical garden that ended at the beach.

some wonderful flowers were picked in the garden and placed in the kitchen as a welcome.

just wondering through the garden to the beach was a treat

beachside

This was oru last place for the family vacation. While wife and kids took an extremely scenic trip (approx. 400 km) through the maintains to reach the airport, I stayed longer on this peninsula for the more adventurous  part of the vacation.

Park national Corcovado protects the largest lowland pacific rainforest on Earth. Reaching this area was a challenge:

After extremely rough rounds, the last 30 Kilometers were strictly off-road. Say goodbye to bridges and say hello to the crocs:

I did find some vey scenic accomodation:

with a beach close by

which was my starting point for the hiking tours through the jungle.

The trail never went too far away from the shoreline. This not only afforded magnificent visions, but the surf always  provided quite good audible orientation.

After a long hike came the biggest adventure. I was able to hire a local to bring the up the river with his canoe.

When the boat could not pass anymore we left it to hike and swim up the river. With the current, the swimming was quite a challenge.

When asking my guide about the crocodiles in the river, his assuring answer was: "where boat yes, when swimming, no."

While these hiking trips were certainly the highlights of the adventure part of the vacation, I still had to breath some compressed air. Scuba diving at Isla del Cano is especially interesting since 20 kilometers offshore you see the fish of the open ocean but also the ones of the coral reefs.