Today we have a big drive ahead of us as we make our way to the southernmost point of Costa Rica, but before getting back on the road, we had one last delicious breakfast at our hotel.
As we mentioned in a previous post, we hadn’t planned on making our way to Osa Peninsula, but due to the unexpected rain on the Caribbean side, we had to make changes to our itinerary. Our new plan is to stay in Puerto Jimenez for 3 nights and one of the days we’ll do an all day hike in Corcovado National Park.
In our travels, we do our best to learn about the culture and history of each country. One of the many ways to do this is by visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites! UNESCO is an acronym that stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and includes both cultural and natural sites. There are over one thousand World Heritage Sites across the globe, but only four here in Costa Rica (Corcovado National Park is on the “tentative list”).
We’ve already visited the Area de Conservación Guanacaste and today we plan to visit the country’s sole cultural site, Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquís, on the way to the Osa Peninsula. It is $7pp to enter the museum and walk the grounds, and we think it’s well worth the entrance fee. We learned so much about these mysterious spheres just in the museum alone…being able to walk the property and see some on the alignment spheres still embedded in the ground as the original inhabitants laid them was really amazing.
Rock spheres were found by conservationists and have informed them about the heritage left by ancient, pre-Columbian Costa Rican communities that inhabited the canton of Osa and its surroundings. There are a lot of different accounts of what these spheres signify. According to historians, these rock spheres were created by different communities to signify who the leaders were in the communities. The bigger the sphere, the more important someone was.
We thought the most interesting group of spheres were the alignment of spheres. There are different speculations of why earlier civilizations have placed these spheres in perfect alignment, but many historians agree that they are in conjunction with the movement of our local star and other heavenly bodies, likely to signify different agricultural periods (and potentially to mark associated rituals).
There was also an area where we found groups of spheres that have been returned to the sacred grounds after being stolen, sold, and relocated to different parts of the world.
We spent a few hours exploring the museum and meandering the grounds trying to imagine how these earlier civilizations lived right where we were standing. After this adventure, we hopped back in our car and continued on our drive to Puerto Jimenez. Because we made this minor detour to Finca 6 in Sierpe, our GPS directed us to go through a river crossing and a pretty extreme road (there is another way through Piedras Blancas and Rincon that we would recommend…hindsight is always 20/20).
There was no bridge to get us to the other side of this river, so our options were to backtrack pretty significantly or cross by way of local ferry. Now when we say ferry, it’s not what you might imagine…it was really just a local man with a big barge that he tugged back and forth with a small outboard boat…so we were nervous to say the least. He spoke only Spanish, and we came to the understanding that it would cost 6,000 colones (~$10USD) for him to take us (and our car) across the river on his barge. Joey slowly backed his way onto the barge and we made our way across the river…quite the adventure!
As we drove onto land, we realized our adventure was not quite over. The road that we would be taking to get to the other side of Osa Peninsula was unpaved and VERY bumpy…so 4×4 is definitely needed to get through this part of the drive. This way by far the most difficult road we’ve encountered thus far. It’s supposed to be a two-lane road but every time we encountered an oncoming vehicle, we were nearly forced off the cliffside. Again, you can avoid this route by way of Piedras Blancas and Rincon, and we would definitely recommend doing so (this is how we plan to return).
Once off this crazy road, we were back on a paved road and feeling a little better. We arrived in the town of Puerto Jimenez a little later than expected and much more rattled, so we decided to stop for a much-needed lunch. We found a small restaurant right along the coast where a lot of locals were eating, so of course we had to stop and check it out for ourselves. Soda Marabella is a local Costa Rican restaurant that’s known for their fresh fish and ceviche, so of course we ordered a fresh fish ceviche and arroz con camarones (rice with shrimp)! Everything was absolutely delicious, as expected from this major fishing town.
After a nice lunch, we made our way to our hotel for the next three nights, Iguana Lodge. Iguana Lodge is in a quieter part of town and located right on the beach. Driving into the lodge really felt like going into a jungle retreat!
After a long day of driving, we decided that we would take it easy the rest of the day. We didn’t want to leave the resort for dinner, so we ended up getting something from the resort’s restaurant. It was pretty pricey, but I guess it’s somewhat expected from a remote resort like this. Luckily we weren’t too hungry because of how big our lunch was, so we just shared a burrito.
Tomorrow we plan on exploring the small town of Puerto Jimenez, because the following day we’ll be exploring the most biologically intense national park in the world…so stay posted!