Corcovado Wilderness Lodge Is the Sustainable Gateway to Costa Rica’s Most Remote National Park

We had been on the Sierpe River about an hour before my “so, are we close yet?” instinct kicked in. I knew getting to the Corcovado Wilderness Lodge wouldn’t be as simple as an Uber ride from the airport. After all, the lodge was perched on a cliff in the middle of a rainforest in the Osa Peninsula–the most remote region of Costa Rica–and inaccessible by roads. I also knew staying there would be an adventure – but didn’t expect getting there to be an adventure too.

The town of Sierpe is about a five-hour drive south of San Jose. That’s where you’ll hop on a small boat and cruise down the Sierpe river for about an hour, winding through lush mangrove forests, before the river opens into the ocean. But you’re not home sweet home just yet. Another 45-minute cruise along the picturesque Pacific coastline ends with a mid-ocean transfer onto an even smaller boat (not as sketchy as it sounds), and finally a wet landing on the lodge’s beach.

Or you could just fly from San Jose to Drake Bay, a nearby small airport, and hop on the ocean from there. But that’s not as much fun.

The last small leg of the journey is a truck ride from the beach up a winding road to the top of the cliff, where the rooms, open-air restaurants, pool, and reception are located. The ride takes less than 10 minutes, but before it’s over you’ll likely have seen at least three new animal species, felt a palm frond graze your cheek, and realized that though the hotel was built by humans, nature still runs the place.

Treehouse living

In the spirit of leaving as light an environmental footprint as possible, many of the rooms here are built using sustainable materials, and unassumingly tucked away in the rainforest, accessible by a raised wooden walkway. The Oceanview Treehouses manage to be both rugged and modern, surrounded almost entirely by trees, windowed walls on three sides, and with decks overlooking the distant ocean.

The ceiling is light but sturdy canvas material, meaning you’ll be constantly immersed in the sounds of the rainforest, but don’t have to worry about leaks or uninvited animal visitors. During my time there, I formed a special connection with two birds who perched on my roof every night and twittered back and forth for about an hour. Though another treehouse might sit just 30 yards away, you feel like you have the whole forest to yourself.

Despite this feeling of relative isolation, no modern amenities are sacrificed (except single-use plastics). The AC works wonderfully–a must anywhere in Costa Rica–the Wi-Fi is way more reliable than you’d expect, and there’s an outdoor bathtub and hammock with ocean views. I stayed there for four days, and didn’t even notice the absence of a TV until I was checking out.

Gateway to Corcovado National Park

As nice as outdoor bathtubs might be, the lodge’s most valuable calling card is its location on the edge of Corcovado National Park, one of the most remote parks in Costa Rica. Described by National Geographic as the “most biologically diverse place on earth,” the national park covers about a third of the Osa Peninsula, and is home to rivers, beaches, cloud forests, mangrove swamps, and marshes. Given its ecological diversity, it’s no surprise that over 500 different animal species live there–from colorful macaws and toucans to beasts of prey like pumas and jaguars.

It’s illegal to enter the park without the company of a guide, and right now, Corcovado Wilderness Lodge is the only hotel with direct hiking access. Spanning 450,000 acres, it’s hard to conceive of just how large the park and reserves actually are. And easy to understand why you’re only allowed to enter with a guide. But rather than feel vast and intimidating, there’s something primal and energetic about Corcovado National Park. The animals hardly take notice of you as you navigate the rough walking trails, too busy looking for food, caring for their young, or finding shelter. You could probably spend your whole life in the park without seeing all the species of frogs, birds, and reptiles.

That’s part of the park’s allure: the sense that you’ve entered a remote landscape unspoiled by human development, and can connect with the natural world without distraction or pretense.

Explore the rainforest

Since you can’t just go wandering haphazardly through the rainforest, the lodge has a variety of organized tours that do more than bring you safely through the wild surroundings–they give you an educational crash course in what makes the area so special.

My first introduction to Corcovado National Park was, ironically, at night. Night walks are designed for seeing creatures that only come out at night, which can be a little nerve wracking if you’re not used to wandering around a remote rainforest in the dark with nothing more than a flashlight (and who is?). Luckily, the lodge’s guides are incredibly knowledgeable and know the forest trails like you know the streets around your house. On my hike, the mission was to find glass frogs, a rare frog species whose abdominal skin is translucent, meaning you can actually see the animal’s last meal sitting in its stomach. It sounds like a gross mission, but it was fun to have a goal as we made our way through the dark rainforest; the sense of isolation and disconnectedness was profound, in a good way, and even when it started raining it felt almost like nature’s baptism.

Finding a tapir while avoiding crocodiles

While I certainly recommend a night hike, most rainforest hikes take place in the early morning, when animals are active. And yes, it helps to be able to see the lush leafy canopy, and rugged coast, without a flashlight.

“We will probably not cross the river today,” our guide said at the outset. “It rained a lot last night, and there may be crocodiles.”

May be crocodiles? Yeah. Let’s not cross the river.

The first part of our hike took us along muddy trails as we tracked tapir–large mammals crossed between a pig and horse, native to the tropical regions of Central America. Along the way, we saw scarlet macaws and toucans in the trees, coati scurrying through the brush, and heard the wails of howler monkeys high up in the canopy. Sometimes you’d feel a drop of rain on your head, and look up to discover it was actually dew shaken off the trees by monkeys leaping between branches.

When we reached the ranger station, on the edge of the Sirena River, our guide addressed our group after a brief aside with the ranger.

“We will cross the river,” he said. “The tide is low. Probably, there will not be so many crocodiles.”

Probably is fine for telling someone you might show up to a party; estimating the risk of a crocodile attack is a different story. It’s all part of “pura vida,” the famous Costa Rican mindset of outlook of optimism and positivity, free from needless worry and the rigid constraints of punctuality. In a word: probably.

Trusting the guide, we took off our mud boots and forded the river on foot. As you might have guessed–since I still have fingers to type these words–we had no trouble from crocodiles and safely reached the other side, where we continued to track the tapir. Following our guide’s extraordinary sense of smell, we forged off-trail through a thickening forest, which suddenly (and refreshingly) opened up onto the beach. A tapir stood on its hind legs, trying to reach some low-hanging mangoes in a tree.

Though commuting with the rainforest–and communing a little too intimately with the river–is what a visit to the Osa Peninsula is all about, there are plenty of other nature experiences to be had, too. You can take a snorkel or diving tour off the coast of nearby Caño Island, take a birdwatching stroll, or watch the sunset from an innovative treetop hammock. If you feel like exploring on your own, walk down from the lodge to the black sand beach, where you’ll find a sea cave at low tide.

Sustainability is central at Corcovado Wilderness Lodge

I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know much about conservation before I came to the Corcovado Wilderness Lodge. I knew it was important, and had vague ideas about what constituted sustainable hospitality, but had never stayed on a property where conservation was a central part of the governing ethos. It’s impossible to stay here without becoming more informed about the Osa Peninsula’s highly unique biome, and feeling intimately invested in local conservation. You can’t be the most biologically diverse rainforest on earth without environmentally-focused stewards passionate about preserving it.

While my guide, Adrian, drove me down from San Jose to Sierpe, where we caught the boat to the lodge, he gushed with enthusiasm for Corcovado National Park and the hotel’s conservation mission. He told me about how a portion of each hotel stay supports onsite environmental research, and how the hotel collaborates with local communities to clean and restore beaches. Unsurprisingly, there are no single-use plastics onsite, but even more impressively, collected plastics are recycled into materials used in creative ways around the lodge, from decor to building construction. Fifty percent of tour fees go toward conservation research, and 2 to 3 percent of each stay goes to the Blue Warrior Program, which teaches local children skills in sustainable tourism to get them out of the commercial fishing industry.

“I had to get out of San Jose,” Adrian said, as he showed me around the village where he and the other guides and staff live. The village is set back from the main property, tucked away in its own private corner of the rainforest, with a greenhouse, garden, and soccer field. It’s like a summer camp for sustainability-focused adults. “The city is so constricting. Coming to a place like this allows you to breathe fresh air. To be a human. To reconnect with nature. To remember we’re all a part of the natural world, and not cyborgs.”

He then encouraged me to walk through the garden without my shoes, to feel the energy through my feet. It turns out, the garden was his idea. He explained how a few months ago, he had approached the owner, Blake Delatte, with an idea for educating guests about the property’s farm-to-table food ethos. Delate empowered him to expand the garden and spearhead a guest education program. Now guests can choose to visit the worker’s village, and gather their own fruits and vegetables from the garden before cooking them into a meal. Adrian also sets up and monitors camera traps in the jungle to help the lodge better understand the behaviors of pumas, jaguars, and other animals.

Living and working in Corcovado are essentially the same thing for Adrian, and for the other staff. It takes a special personality to live on the edge of the country’s most remote rainforest, and dedicate your life to conservation and guest education. But their enthusiasm is infectious.

“Sometimes,” he said, “you need to go somewhere extreme to truly reconnect and enjoy being present. To enjoy being part of something bigger.”