If you’re heading to Marino Ballena National Park in the coming months, one of its four entrances is off limits. The Piñuela sector on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast closed Monday and is expected to stay shut for six months. The rest of the park is open and you can still enter through the Uvita, Colonia and Ballena sectors, and Uvita remains the closest entrance to the park’s famous whale-tail sandbar.
At Piñuela, the closure is total and you can’t walk in, and boats can’t drop off or pick up passengers there. The bathrooms and showers at that entrance are closed too. The reason is damaged infrastructure. The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) said the sector’s facilities have deteriorated enough to put visitors and park staff at risk.
If your tour includes a boat landing or a stop at Piñuela, check with your operator before you go. Your trip may need to move to another sector. The timing is important to note since the closure runs through Costa Rica’s busiest travel months, which typically start in December. It also overlaps with the season when humpback whales from the Northern Hemisphere pass through these waters, roughly December through April.
Marino Ballena sits near Uvita in the canton of Osa, Puntarenas. It protects about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) of coastline between the mouth of the Morete River and Punta Piñuela, the park’s southern end. Its whale-tail sandbar, visible at low tide, is one of Costa Rica’s best-known coastal landmarks.
Guided tours, hotels and restaurants in Uvita and nearby communities depend heavily on park visitors, and the park is home to the annual Whale and Dolphin Festival. The Osa Conservation Area, which manages the park for SINAC, asked visitors to respect the restrictions and follow instructions from park rangers.
Officials have not said which facilities will be repaired or released a detailed work schedule. If the six-month timeline holds, Piñuela would reopen around May 2027, though that date still needs official confirmation.
