Zip-lining and night-time creepy crawly tours in Bahia Drake (near Corcovado National Park)
Summary
If you’ve made your way to this part of Costa Rica, chances are you’re here for the country’s premier wildlife experience, Corcovado National Park – which is fantastic and I’ve written an entry for some tips on 2 great days inside the park itself in Camping in Corcovado National Park. But do make sure you also give yourself a day for Bahia Drake, and in particular the zip-lining canopy tour which features 12 platforms, 2.5km of line and all roughly 30m / 100ft up in the canopy. The height gives you a different view of the monkeys and other wildlife that that you obviously won’t get in the park. Plus, chances are you will probably need to spend the night in Agujitas before heading into the park anyway
The other fun thing I’d recommend is to head off on one of the night-time walks through the jungle with one of the local guides. Its equally amazing and scary just how much wildlife they can spot right under your noise
Agujitas is the town you’ll most likely stay in. Nothing to write home about as it is very basic – although it does have its own charm in that it is so remote due to no roads linking it with the rest of the country. A full day there and get rested up before heading into the park should be enough
highlights
#1 Zip-lining through the canopy, seeing families of monkeys and generally getting a view of the jungle that you can't when in the National Park
#2 Seeing the creepy crawlies of the jungle night trip - its genuinely amazing just how much stuff is out there when shown by a local guide
#3 Taking advantage of the remoteness of the Bahia Drake area to be able to see a whole range of local wildlife
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Similar jungle adventures around the world
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone