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I thought it was 'The Real Man'

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

Has anyone ever crossed Corcovado National Park? I'm sure in the past many have. Has anyone from HERE AT CRT ever crossed Corcovado National Park? On that I'm not so sure. I'll admit that I haven't. HOWEVER, a better question might be "can anyone STILL cross Corcovado National Park?". Since I have shared your interest in crossing the park AND have at least done some research on that question, I can offer an answer and, unfortunately, that answer is even less sure for any FUTURE crossings of the park. The reason for that is that BOTH main trails to the west sector of the park have been CLOSED. On a more positive note, it is still possible to do a LOOP through the eastern section of the park. However, I'm not sure if that qualifies for what you had in mind as a "crossing" of the park.

There are/were 6 ranger station / entry points scattered around the edges of the park. One of those has been closed (Los Planes). One (Sirena) is actually located midway along the coast and is not really an entry point unless you arrive by boat or plane (though it is place where you can camp). And one (El Tigre actually located just outside the park) is closest to Puerto Jimenez but does not appear to have any trails connecting it to the other entry points for the park. That leaves 3 places where you could enter the park and cross over to another different exit point.

Los Patos, located on the northeastern inland side of the park is accessed by way of a rough 4WD trail that turns off the main road to Puerto Jimenez (about 15miles? before you get to PJ). As far as I know there is no public transportation to this entry/exit point so you'd probably have to either pay a private taxi in PJ to take you there ($$) or else go with a guided tour group that includes transportation to the park ($$$) or you can hike the 5 miles up from the main road to get there. There USED to be facilities for campers at this station (showers, toilets, potable water), but those are no longer available at the new station. Even more significantly for anyone wanting to "cross the park", the trail from there to the western side of the park has long since closed (it might still be there for ranger use but is NOT open to tourists).

Where you CAN hike from here is to the Sirena station on the coast (about 11 miles away). Sirena is the parks largest station and has the most facilities (including a dormitory shelter). There are (or were) 2 other main trails from Sirena. The trail from Sirena to San Pedrillo station on the Drake Bay side of the park reportedly closed for good last April and there is no other way of crossing over to that side of the park. So much for a TRUE crossing.

Before I discuss where you CAN hike from Sirena, let me tell you a little more about the trail that closed. At 16 miles long it is (or was) the longest trail in the park. When it was open to hikers it was open only from December to April (the dry season), because fording the rivers en route is often impossible during the rainy season. From Sirena the first 11 miles of this trail is all beach, which offers no shade from the searing tropical sun (unless you undertook this as a night hike), and no water. Three tidal estuaries intersect this beach section of the trail and they can only be forded at, or near low tide: What is a knee deep, 50 meter crossing at low tide, changes to a 4 meter deep, 150 meter wide crossing at high tide. Because of the distance between the first crossing and the last, even with a carefully timed departure from Sirena, one would usually wind up having to swim across at least one of these estuaries (finding some driftwood to use to float one's backpack on). Added to this difficulty is the fact that these estuaries are home to bull sharks and large crocodiles!! Needless to say only the hardiest hikers undertook this particular trail. From San Pedrillo, it might be possible to hike along the coast to/from Drake Bay (I'm not sure) but I've mostly read about people covering that stretch by boat ($$).

Traveling along the coast from Sirena in the other direction, it is 12 miles to the La Leona station and 2 miles beyond that the town of Carate. There are facilities for campers at this station (showers, toilets, potable water) but little else. Just outside the park there is a private campground with luxurious equipped tents ($$) whose name escapes me (let me know if you're interested and I'll look it up). And from Carate there is public bus service to/from Puerto Jimenez. Those buses take a full 2 hours to cover the distance because they follow the coast and go around the tip of the Osa Peninsula. Also they only leave every few hours, so unless you schedule your trip perfectly and make all your connections (and perhaps not even then) you'll probably need to stay over in PJ or Carate one night before you hit the trails because I seriously doubt you'd be able to come from SJ and do all that plus cover the 12-14 miles to Sirena before dark. However traveling to/from this station and the Los Patos station by way of Sirena probably represents the closest thing you're going to get to "crossing" Corcovado.

It sounds like this latter "crossing" is something one might be able to do independently (the "true crossing" if it can still be done at all I would ONLY do that with a guide). However, if you'd rather to do even this route with a guide (as I suspect most of you who would even consider this would), your best bet would probably be with http://www.osaaventura.com (which is where I got most of the information for this post). Here is another good link to a map showing some of the places and trails I've mentioned above http://costa-rica-guide.com/Natural/CorcovadoHiking.pdf

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I'd also like to comment on BlueDevil's comment "Corcovado is really the only part of CR that hasn't been touched by development." That is flat out untrue. At least here there are some trails and ranger stations. If you really want to see a part of CR that has TRULY been untouched by development then you should consider a "coast to coast crossing" of CR through La Amistad National Park. I'm not sure that this is even possible for the average visitor, although I seem to recall reading somewhere about arranging a private guided trip with a local BriBri indian. I would never even consider undertaking a trip like that without a guide.

My nephew and I crossed the Osa a few years ago. It took us four days of really humping it. We took a boat to Sirena and started from there. We went through Los Patos and ended somewhere around La Palma. It was some of the most grueling shit I have ever done. The humidity was stifling and the insectos tortureous. By the end, I literally had ferns sticking out of my shoes because of blisters. Our Indio guide was fantastic and his advice with the ferns saved my ass. My buddy had arranged, with our guide, to meet us at a pre-arranged spot. On the last day, we were getting a bit concerned. We were out of food, our water was running low and night was fast approaching. It was a miracle, it was just about dark and we stepped out of the jungle onto a riverbed and lo and behold, there was my buddy, waiting with a cooler full of ice cold beer. A cold one never tasted so good.
It was truly incredible, but I don't think I would do it again.

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Costa Rica: We make easy, hard........

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