How long will it take to get from David, Panama to Corcovado?

Out of David, its 2 hours or so to the Costa Rican border. From the border, its another couple hours to Golfito, the main point of entry to Corcovado from the South. The border may or may not take extra time, but we were routed from Official A to Official B to Official C to Official A for about an hour.

Golfito is an abandoned banana port town that consists of broken railroad tracks, a red light district, and the one boat that can take you to Puerto Jimenez, the actual town with transport into the park.

If you miss the boat from Golfito, which is usually in the morning (11am) and after traveling from (Boquette) David, we had missed the boat. They were trying to charge us $45 to get to Puerto Jimenez after the 11am shuttle and wouldn't budge on the cost. I suppose taking just two people there and back is quite costly with fuel that they weren't willing to barter is down at all. We ended up having to stay the night, which was extremely uncomfortable for myself and my friend (both women), as we were staying in a hostel in the red light district, had a poor lock on our door, and were being mildly stalked by this guy from the port. I would recommend, if you get stuck, to stay at Dona Luz's hostel, however, as she is adamantly opposed to any funny business and has a gate on her front door so that only guests are admitted into the hostel. Its in the Lonely Planet.

If you make the boat, or get on the boat the following morning, you will arrive at Puerto Jimenez. They usually depart a jeep for the park entrance semi-regularly, but we didn't know we needed a reservation for the park, as conferred by other travellers. So we actually had to stay another night in Puerto Jimenez. Puerto Jimenez felt much safer and staying the night was inconvenient, but fine. Upon entering the park, we were able to just pay for the nights we planned to be there and did NOT need reservations. Other travelers, however, noted that this was likely to do with the fact that it was low season, we were traveling mid-February.

Depending on where you stay in the park, that will determine how long itll take. We hiked all day to our first Refugio, but we took a wrong turn someone because the signs were slightly misleading, but it took us the better part of the day to get to the first Refugio.

We camped so the price was was that of the reservation, which was not very much. We didn't bring a tent, just a sheet and a mosquito net that we set up as if it were a mini tent. The temperature did not require much else.

I would be aware of ticks, though, as they are small and its good to check for them. Most people we talked to got ticks, but I don't think they carry Lyme disease in CR. There is food at some Refugios, about $12-$15 for dinner, we brought dry food and planned to rough it because that was too high for our budget, but other travelers said it was tastey.

Corcovado is really beautiful though and you'll have a great time, just factor in 1-2 days extra just to arrive at the park. Enjoy!

Edited by: mgoodin

Thanks for your response and sharing your story, sounds like you had an adventure getting there. I know you didn't get a room in Corcovado but do you know if it is possible to get a ride vs. hike to any lodging. I dont know if we are going to be into hiking all day, we may just want to relax after all the travelling. Did you take a bus from David? If so, how was it? Did you have to change buses in C.R. and was there a long wait?

Edited by: marlene711