Costa Rica South Pacific Region

Once the most isolated and hard to reach region of Costa Rica, a new highway just opened in the last year has now paved the way for the South Pacific to become the country's hot new tourist spot. Well renowned for its natural beauty, biological diversity and complicated ecosystems, the South Pacific region of Costa Rica stretches from the nation's highest point, Mount Chirripo and the Amistad National Park on the mountainous border of the continental divide, all the way down to the Osa Peninsula and the Corcovado National Park.

The region also has, in the area known as the Southern Zone, more land set aside for protected National Parks and Forest Reserves than any other region in the whole of Costa Rica. Noted as being one of "the most biologically intense places on Earth" by no less than National Geographic, the South Pacific region contains many wonderful attractions for ecologically minded tourists, from day trips through the mangrove to Cano Island, on which lies the Cano Island Biological Reserve, to whale watching at Las Ballenas National Park, to visits to the Osa Peninsula with its exotic birds, azure waters and emerald canopies that stretch as far as the eye can see, the Guaymi Indigenous Reserve and Wilson Biological Gardens, in addition to numerous opportunities for activities such as diving and deep sea fishing.

For more traditional tourist attractions and activities, there are no less opportunities. The Southern Puntarenas area, which lies within the South Pacific region, is home to numerous beautiful and secluded beaches, many of which receive relatively few visitors and are a perfect place to relax and unwind, while those looking for more adventurous pursuits such as snorkeling and sports fishing cannot afford to not visit the amazing Isla del Cano and Drake Bay respectively, the former situated just off the coast with a stunning underwater world of marine life, and the latter a fisherman's dream spot. Keen surfers also have their own ideal place to visit in the South Pacific, with the small town of Pavones being home to some of the longest lefts on the entire planet, with many surfers able to ride waves for as long as up to two whole minutes.

The South Pacific region is graced with a hot tropical climate throughout almost all of the year, resulting in one of the densest and most lush tracts of forest in the whole of Costa Rica. The Osa Peninsula is famous for the fact that it is home to almost half of all the species that live in the whole of Costa Rica. Puerto Jimenez is the main city in the area, with its own airport, and provides access to the Peninsula's primary attraction, the Corcovado National Park.

Corcovado National Park, located in the Osa Peninsula, is widely regarded as one of the most important such institutions in the whole of the Americas, containing a virgin rain forest with as many as thirteen different types of vegetation all in close proximity to one another (such as mangroves, bloodweed forest and palm swamps) and numerous example of animal life such as giant anteaters, crocodiles, jaguars, white-lipped peccaries and tapers, along with numerous rare and endangered rain forest animals.

Cano Island, covering around three hundred hectares of land and no less than five thousand eight hundred hectares of ocean, is one of the best spots for adventure diving on the planet, at least according to no less than Skin Diver magazine.

Situated just off the southern most point of Costa Rica, the island offers 15 to 16' reefs to "walls" as large as 80'. The area is also renowned as one of the best scuba diving areas in the whole of Costa Rica. Visibility is very strong and there are numerous species of shark to be spotted in the area, as well as other marine life such as sea turtles, groupers, dolphins, morays, stingers and enormous snappers.

The island was once a burial ground in the pre-Columbian era and evidence of its history is apparent from the many extraordinary stone spheres that have been discovered there. While most of the beauty of the island is to be found underwater rather than on land, the island does nonetheless play home to a fair amount of plant and wildlife, with something like a hundred and fifty eight species of superior plants and ferns, and with wildlife ranging from bats, lizards, boa constrictors, rats, possums, beetles and tree frogs, as well as many migratory birds who are heading from the northern hemisphere toward warmer climates during the winter months.

The Las Ballenas National Park (also known as Ballena National Marine Park) is situated just half an hour south of Dominical in Uvita. It is a protected coastal strip, with the vast majority of the park being underwater - five thousand, one hundred and sixty one acres of ocean versus just a hundred and seventy two acres of land - and thus the majority of its attractions are marine based. Las Bellas National Park is actually one of the least developed National Parks in the whole of Costa Rica, but there is still plenty to see in the park, with its underwater world being home to an amazing array of marine life from common and bottle nosed dolphins to humpback whales (balenas) as well as it incredible coral reef. Offshore, the southern most areas of the park, Isla Ballenas, and Las Tres Hermanas are bird nesting sites for species such as brown pelicans, white ibis and frigate birds.

The Guaymi Indigenous Reserve is primarily a forest zone, covering around two thousand eight hundred hectares of land, with a cloud forest at its highest points, in which can be spotted numerous types of oak trees, ferns, epiphyte plants, mosses, palms, mushrooms and lichens. The lower section, however, is almost untouched rain forest, which is the home of the Ngobe (Guaymi) tribe from which the Reserve takes its name. They are a tribe of Chibcha speaking people who have been endemic to the region since the earliest days of pre-Columbian times. Guided tours are available to take visitors through the peninsula in order to take a stop at some beautiful beaches, go horseback riding, swim in the rivers or take a medicinal/botanical tour conducted by a specialist in the Ngobe. The Reserve borders that of the more famous Corcovado National Park.

The Wilson Biological Gardens (now a part of the Las Cruces Biological Station) is in the most recently constructed of three research posts created by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). The Station contains the biological gardens started by Robert and Catherine Wilson, but also a biological research station (which focuses primarily on agro-ecology) and facilities for tourists taking the tour of the Gardens. The Gardens is widely considered to be the best place for bird watching tourists in the whole of Costa Rica and the richest collection of plant life in the entirety of Central America, with cyads, palms, tree ferns, marantas, aroids, heliconias, bromeliads and gingers all existing within the gardens. There are also almost four hundred species of birds, over eight hundred kinds of butterfly and numerous mammal species (including a minimum of thirty eight separate species of bats) and many amphibian and reptile species.

The South Pacific region may once have been the least explored tourist region in Costa Rica, but it is now finally beginning to take its rightful place as one of the country's shining jewels.