Most visitors hiking in Corcovado National Park use Puerto Jiménez as a staging base, staying in town or at lodges close to the park’s southern entrance. Now there are two new, affordable lodging options that give visitors access to the park via less-traveled trails. Both lodges also give visitors a preview of the park’s natural wonders.
PUERTO JIMÉNEZ, Osa Peninsula – A river runs through the Río Nuevo Lodge. Well, not quite through it. But to get to Río Nuevo Lodge, you have to ford five rivers and cross a 20-meter swinging bridge, suspended 11 meters above the pebble-lined Río Nuevo. Once you’re there, the reward is the complete absence of the sounds of civilization. Set on a hill overlooking a bend in the river, the main lodge is a thatched-roof rancho surrounded by a spectacular tropical garden, with mist-shrouded views of primary forest beyond.
Three years ago, owner Walter Aguirre started planting the garden, a year before he laid the first building foundation. Aguirre, born and raised in Puerto Jiménez, set out to build a business to help stanch the flow of young people leaving the Osa.
“I wanted to provide an alternative to farming so that young people here have an economic reason to stay,” he said.
TRAINED as an industrial engineer, Aguirre supervises the Chacarita regional office of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) by day, but he is also a nature lover. His wife Danilla, who manages Río Nuevo’s adventure tours office in Puerto Jiménez, is the daughter of the owner of La Leona Eco-Lodge, a tent camp at the Carate entrance to Corcovado National Park. Aguirre had lots of expertise to draw on in building a tent-camp lodge on this 36-hectare (89-acre) property, which borders Piedras Blancas.
The garden Aguirre planted three years ago is now a riot of yellow-and-orange curly crotons, flaming coral ixora, red heliconia and gingers, orange parrot flowers and yellow allamanda. From the lodge’s spacious dining room/deck, the river view is front and center, framed by rosy mussaenda shrubs.
It’s all eminently civilized, despite being off the grid, in the middle of nowhere. Electricity is generated by solar panels and the only sounds you’ll hear are the river gurgling, frogs croaking, birds chattering – and the occasional neigh of a horse. Horseback rides are a main attraction here, with day guests coming out for rides along the river and a hot lunch. But the horses also provide the only way out when the rivers suddenly rise. Guests – and staff – have had to cross the rivers on horseback to get to a truck waiting on higher, dry ground.
Twisting stone paths bordered by shrubs lead up a hill behind the rancho to the accommodations: eight two-person tents perched on raised, wooden platforms. The 3×3-meter covered platforms have enough room for two chairs on the front “porch” and each platform has a privacy screen of shrubs. The 2×2-meter plastic tents have lots of ventilation with mesh openings; there’s no trace of a musty odor. Inside there’s either a double mattress or two singles, covered in fresh linens.
HOW waterproof are the tents? The night my friend and I spent under canvas here turned out to be the night of the biggest rainstorm in a decade, with earth-shaking shards of lightning, booming thunder and torrential rain. But not a drop entered the tent. The rain created a lake-size puddle near our tent and the frogs were in frog heaven, adding their croaking to the storm’s sound effects.
I needed a large umbrella to walk to the shared bathhouse, which has two sparkling, white toilet rooms and two cold-water showers. Two sinks with large mirrors are outside on opposite sides of the white cane-lined bathhouse, so you’ll be brushing your teeth in public. In the evening, flickering torches light the pathways but it’s a good idea to bring a flashlight for late-night bathroom visits.
Meals are served family-style at a long table made of polished guayabo wood. Cook Xinia Calderón, sporting a baseball cap, is cheerfully busy in the kitchen all day, tending a wood-fire stove and gas range where black pots of rice and stews simmer away. The food is típico and plentiful. (Vegetarians will be happy with the constant supply of rice, beans and fresh vegetables.)
You can work up an appetite for the three hearty meals included in the price by walking some of the lodge’s trails, with or without a guide. The most exciting – and challenging walk – is a nine-hour hike west into Corcovado Park, staying overnight in a very basic gold-miner’s house and ending up in Carate, almost across the peninsula. Freelance guide Mike Boston, the most famous hike leader and zoologist in the area, said the hike follows rarely traveled trails and the visit with the gold miners is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
WITH the night before’s heavy rain, it seemed more sensible to let horses get their feet muddy, so we opted for a trail ride instead of a hike. Horse wrangler Jerry Rapp, a former Sierra Club hike leader from Durango, Colo., supervises the 10-horse stable, with the assistance of Aguirre’s nephew, Bolivar Vega. The horses are well-behaved and Rapp takes great care in making sure saddles and stirrups are properly adjusted for each rider. Trail rides vary from 3-9 hours, but my friend and I opted for one of the shorter rides along the river.
We set off with Rapp as our guide and quickly lost ourselves in the sounds and sights of the forest, as the horses carefully picked their way in and out of the river and along forest trails. With the rains promoting a tangle of new growth, Rapp rode ahead, wielding a machete to clear branches and vines.
About an hour into the ride, we heard a distant shout and stopped to let a breathless Bolivar catch up to us on foot. Heavy rain in Puerto Jiménez had prompted Aguirre to send his nephew to warn us of the possibility of rivers rising and trapping us. Reluctantly, we turned tail and rode back to camp.
An hour later, with the car jammed with our gear as well as with Rapp, Calderón and Vega, we set out to cross the rivers. My friend’s Toyota Land Cruiser sailed through all the rivers and we made it to drier ground intact, if a little muddy. But the experience made us appreciate that Río Nuevo Lodge includes transportation – in their own high-clearance truck – in the room rate.
GETTING THERE: Río Nuevo Lodge is 12 km (7.5 miles) west of Puerto Jiménez, including 9 km (5.5 miles) along a rough road crossing five rivers. The $50 per person rate ($35 now in green season) includes three meals and transportation to and from Puerto Jiménez. Hiking tours cost from $35-50 per person (for the Carate hike, including transportation back to P.J.) and horse rides range from $50-65, including transportation and a hot lunch. Book tours through the lodge’s office in Puerto Jiménez, next door to La Carolina Restaurant or call 735-5411, fax 735-5407; www.rionuevolodge.com.
