Costa Rica Pacific Coast

The Osa Peninsula, host to the Corcovado National Park, has been dubbed by National Geographic as 'one of the most biologically intense places on earth', with a biodiversity second only to the Amazon. Quite a reputation to live up to! I had been humming and hawing about visiting the Osa, due to the difficulty of getting there, which is probably why it remains the wilderness it is billed to be. My decision was made easier for me when I met an American called Michael and his 9-year-old son Rafa at a hostel in Boquete, Panama. Michael runs a wonderful eco-lodge called Ojo del Mar out on the Osa, not far from the main 'town' Puerto Jimenez, the main jumping off point into the Corcovado. He invited me to go out and visit them at discounted rates, so, not being able to turn down a bargain, my decision was made.

An arduous journey involving 2 buses, a border crossing and a water taxi later, I arrived in Puerto Jimenez where Michael drove me out to visit Ojo del Mar. This is a wonderful eco-lodge set in the remote jungle. Guests are regularly woken by the morning wails of the howler monkeys, after which they can spend their day doing yoga on the beach yoga platform, walk along the string of beautiful beaches, or venture into the jungle. While I was there, Michael and Rafa took me on a guided waterfall hike and kayaking at sunrise which was incredible. Michael also offered me a job during July and August as a sort of 'day host', welcoming guests and showing them around. I spent a good week being extremely tempted but unfortunately KLM refused to allow any changes to my flight plans out of Mexico at the end of July. It was probably for the best, as I'm keen to keep travelling up to Guatemala and Mexico and I did wonder if the remoteness would make me a little stir crazy.

Getting into the national park also proved quite complicated, requiring permits and hiring of guides, and an overnight stay at a ranger station, so in the end I decided that I was perfectly satisfied with the wildlife and jungle experience I'd had on the outskirts of the park.

After eventually prising myself away from Ojo del Mar, I ventured back to Puerto Jimenez where I discovered that the only way to get to my next destination, Manuel Antonio National Park, further up the Pacific Coast, was a 10 hour bus journey with 3 changes, leaving at 5am. In the end I bit the bullet and took a Nature Air flight, reducing my travel time to 1.5 hours. It was smallest plane I've ever been on and the views it afforded over the Pacific Coast made the flight well worth the extra expense.

Manuel Antonio is renowned for being one of the most beautiful national parks in Costa Rica. At only 100 miles from the capital, San Jose, it's also famous for being the most developed and commercial of the national parks. The town is certainly very resort-y, with most restaurants and bars well out of my price range. Within the park, local guides shepherded large groups of American tourists along wide, clearly marked trails. This definitely detracted from the wildness of the park, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

From there, I moved further up the coast to the Nicoya Peninsula, which again involved a bus, ferry and another bus to get to my next stop, Montezuma. Formerly a tiny fishing village, around 20 years ago Montezuma began to develop a reputation as a laid back hippie destination that, crucially, was not too easy to reach, allowing the village to maintain its charm. However, nothing remains the same forever and Montezuma in 2012 certainly caters for the tourists, with souvenir shops and tour companies only rivalled by restaurants on the main street. It does, however, still have a feeling of a place unto itself, a true destination, in many ways the Pacific Coast's slightly more developed equivalent of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast.

Montezuma is also famous for its waterfalls, and I spent a hectic morning navigating a particularly treacherous path which required climbing up a sheer mud wall aided only by a fraying rope and an enthusiastic local who showed two of us around free of charge. This is typical of my experience of Costa Rica, with people being extremely helpful and friendly, going out of their way to cross the road and give me directions if I'm looking lost. I haven't witnessed the touting and hassling of tourists that you often see in Asia - it seems that people here definitely live by the Costa Rican motto, 'pura vida', or 'full of life', enjoying life to the max.