Today the last day of our trip on board National Geographic Quest, found us in my personal favorite part of the world, on the outer side of the Osa Peninsula. On the southernmost part of the country and the smallest peninsula on the Pacific side, this area houses some of the most unspoiled and untouched forests of the region. Isolated from the central plateau and the main cities and population, Osa was the land of the forgotten; still nowadays, the 745 square miles area holds less than 7,000 inhabitants.

During the morning, we disembarked onto a private Wildlife Refuge called Caletas, owned by Enrique also known as Banban. In both Costa Rica and Panama by law, no one can own beachfront 50 meters above the high tide line is considered public land, but above that line, no one can enter. Banban allows us to use his facilities and his trails to explore. High humidity and deep red clay welcomed us into the long forest trail, but both are a staple in the best-kept Pacific coastal tropical rainforest.

In the afternoon, we repositioned the ship and made our way onto San Pedrillo’s ranger station. We headed to two options, the parallel to the beach Pargo trail or the San Pedrillo trail towards a water hole and waterfall.

The whole day was a complete reward and a fantastic experience anything from monkeys to macaws, wrens and anolis lizards, arboreal porcupine and the star of the day, a Baird’s tapir, broad winged hawk, crowned the last day of our trip.