Experience the best of Puerto Jiménez

Puerto Jiménez is the main town of the Osa Peninsula, on the quiet water of the Golfo Dulce, a gulf in Costa Rica's far south-west. It has a pier, a small airstrip, a main street of shops and open-air cafés, and scarlet macaws that fly over the rooftops. Boats cross the gulf to Golfito, and dolphins and, in season, humpback whales are regular sights in the water.

Corcovado National Park, a vast area of lowland rainforest, begins beyond the end of the road, with ranger stations at La Leona, Sirena and San Pedrillo. Tapirs, jaguars, peccaries and all four of Costa Rica's monkey species live here. Closer to town, Playa Platanares is a long beach, and Cabo Matapalo, at the peninsula's southern tip, has surf breaks and forest running down to the sea.

Plates of rice, beans, plantain and fresh snapper are the standard meal, along with gallo pinto at breakfast, ceviche and fruit from roadside stands. The peninsula is among the wettest parts of the country: the drier months run from about December to April, and the rest of the year brings heavy afternoon rain.