engenho asked 8 years ago
Hi there,
First of all I’d like to congratulate you guys for such an amazing website & forum, content and info here is simply top notch, 5 stars!!! Thanks for the effort and dedication 🙂
I read on one of your posts (searched all over and can’t seem to find it…) that the best way to reach Puerto Jimenez would be dropping a car in Sierpe (usually paying a drop-off fee) and take a ferry/bus combo thereafter…And then fly back saving precious time? Is that right?
My GF and I will be driving along the pacific coast towards Corcovado in order to visit the park, dates being end of May (25-29/05) where the rainy season might be pumping we thought following your tip would be good as (A) we’d avoid driving/crossing the river if the rain makes it hard/impossible and (B) save time by flying back to SJO.
If that’s correct, would this be the way to go:
- drop the car in SierpeÂ
- take the ferry to cross the river
- get a bus to Puerto Jimenez
- enjoy 2 days trip in Corcovado National park
- fly back from Puerto Jimenez to SJO
If you could point me to a website or similar where I can get ferry timetable and bus/similar to drop us in Puerto Jimenez that’d be GRAND!
Â
Cheers ***
Jenn and Matt Staff answered 8 years ago
Hi engenho,Â
Thanks for using our site to help you plan. I think you might be getting our Puerto Jimenez destination post mixed up with our Drake Bay destination post. Both are remote and on the Osa Peninsula but you can easily drive right to Puerto Jimenez. It is Drake Bay that requires a boat ride (info in our Drake Bay post about that). To drive to Puerto Jimenez you would take Route 34 to Route 2 and then Route 245 out onto the peninsula. We have information on all those roads in our Road Conditions of Specific Routes post. Also, both Puerto Jimenez and Drake Bay do have airports for a local flight back to San Jose, so you could do that from either place. It’s a great time saver. If you need help booking your trip into the park (you must go with a guide for Corcovado) we can help set you up with a good company, just let us know. Hope this helps and you have a nice trip!Â
engenho
replied 8 years ago Ahhhh, that must be it, I definitely confused your posts on PJ w/ DBay 😛 Great then, we’ll head to Puerto Jimenez driving, drop the car there and fly back to SJO.
Now that you mention you’d be able to help w/ the trip into the park, we’d like to take that offer 🙂
We’d like to do a 2x days route: Patos -Sirena-Carate or Carate-Sirena-Patos.
To our surprise the tour operator we got in contact with discouraged us to do this trip, according to them:
” I don’t recommend this route for 2 days. Just so that you can take it into consideration the route Patos-Sirena-Carate is a little difficult to do in 2 days. It is 48 km from Patos to Sirena and from Sirena to Carate (hot and humid climate).”
Do you share same opinion? Have you done this? Any tips would be massively appreciated.
Thanks,
Johnny & Andreea
Jenn and MattHi Johnny and Andreea,
No we haven’t done that exact hike personally but we have set up this tour before so have gained a lot of knowledge in our back and forth with the tour operators. It is possible to do the hike from Los Patos to Sirena, then to Carate, with just 1 overnight. But it will not leave you much time to enjoy the part of the park with the most wildlife and diversity, which is around Sirena Ranger Station. On the first day you will hike in and get to the ranger station later in the afternoon (probably tired), then the next morning you will have to hike out again in the early morning. So that’s why most people recommend 1 more night at the Sirena Ranger station. This way you have a day to just do some short hikes and explore the area to see wildlife. We recently got pricing for both options through a really reputable guide service so I will send you those by email so that you can compare.