Costa Rica Guide
The Zona Sur
Península de Osa
In the extreme south of the country, the Península de Osa is an area of immense biological diversity, somewhat separate from the mainland. In the early years of the twentieth century, Osa was something of a penal colony; a place to which men were either sent forcibly or went, machete in hand, to forget. Consequently, a violent, frontierlands folklore permeates the whole peninsula, and old-time residents of Puerto Jiménez are only too happy to regale you with hosts of gory tales. Some may be apocryphal, but they certainly add colour to the place.