Lying on the Pacific side of Costa Rica’s remote Osa Peninsula, Drake Bay, or Bahía Drake as Ticos call it, is a tranquil little town with sheltered beaches and abundant wildlife. It is best known as the departure point for Corcovado National Park, which takes up almost a third of the Osa Peninsula and is widely regarded as one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.
We came to this sleeping little town primarily on our way to Corcovado, but we also wanted to see what whale watching in Drake Bay is actually like. Within minutes of arriving, we were completely taken by the quiet beauty of the place.
Drake Bay may not be a dream destination for everyone, but if you are looking to get away from it all while away your days in a hammock, laze around on sheltered beaches, and see Costa Rica’s wildlife, Drake Bay might just become one of your favourite places in Costa Rica.
Whale Watching in Drake Bay
Drake Bay is one of the best places to see whales in Costa Rica. Humpback whales travel to these waters from the south, as far as Antarctica, and from the north, from the USA and Canada.
The best time to go whale watching in Drake Bay is from mid-July to October, when the whales migrate from their feeding grounds in Antarctica to their breeding grounds in the tropical waters of the Osa Peninsula. This is a good time to see newborn calves travelling with their mothers.
From November to April, you get to see the whales travelling from the northwest USA and Canada. This is supposed to be a less plentiful migration, although whales are still frequently seen.
We booked our tour with the Divine Dolphin – Drake Bay’s original dolphin and whale tour – and since we were a group of nine, we had the boat to ourselves. We left from the main beach in Drake Bay around 8 am, and within half an hour, our boat was surrounded by a large pod of Pantropical spotted dolphins.
These adorable cetaceans stayed with us for about 15 minutes, riding the bow wave of our boat. There was a very young dolphin among them that was always surrounded by protective adults. It is not uncommon to see huge pods of Pantropical spotted dolphins close to shore, though our pod had maybe three dozen individuals. Of all the Costa Rica animals we were hoping to see on this trip, dolphins were an unexpected bonus.
Other commonly-seen dolphins include Spotted Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins, Spinner Dolphins, Common Dolphins and Roughtooth Dolphins. But since it was a whale watching tour, our captain was keen to find us the whales, rather than specifically look for more dolphins.
The captain’s efforts paid off, and about half an hour later, we came across a female Humpback whale with a young calf. We followed them for a while, keeping a respectful distance away, but the whales decided to keep a low profile and stayed mainly below the surface. Although they did approach the boat quite closely a couple of times, and we could see their white bellies even through the water.
Humpback calves are born in tropical waters and weigh about two tonnes. Each day, they consume up to 600 litres of mother’s milk. And humpback’s milk contains a whopping 60 per cent fat.
The newborn calves need all the nutrition they can get. Their main job is to fatten up quickly for their first journey to Antarctica or towards the Arctic Circle in a few months’ time.
Once the whales disappeared, we headed to a deserted beach where we spent about an hour chilling and exploring. That hour on the beach was perhaps the most relaxed hour of our entire Costa Rica journey. With not a soul on the beach, it almost felt like we were shipwrecked on a deserted island.
We returned to Drake Bay around 1.30 pm and spent a lazy afternoon watching Scarlet macaws from our hammocks. On the way to dinner, we spotted a Variable seedeater and a very excited Cherrie’s tanager that was flirting with the side view mirror of a parked truck.
How to Get to Drake Bay
Getting to Drake Bay is part of the adventure. The town can be reached by plane, boat, or car.
The plane is the quickest but most expensive option. A number of airlines offer flights from San Jose to Drake Bay’s new airport.
During the dry season, it is possible to drive to Drake Bay. There are three river crossings involved, so you definitely need a 4×4.
Taking a Boat from Sierpe to Drake Bay
The most fun way of getting to Drake Bay is by boat. You can either drive or catch a bus to the town of Sierpe, from where the boats depart for Drake Bay twice a day from the dock next to La Perla del Sur Hotel. The departures are advertised as 11.30 am and 4 pm. But in reality, these times are quite flexible – the boats leave when their captains decide that they have sold enough tickets.
If you want a bit more certainty, you can book a private boat instead. Whichever boat you choose, the experience of getting there will be the same.
The boat ride takes about an hour and travels through the Térraba-Sierpe mangrove forest park and then continues along the stunning coastline.
Our boat ride was practically a mangrove tour in itself, which was great for those of us who haven’t seen the mangroves before. The rains that made the road to Drake Bay all but impassible also flooded the forest that we were sailing through. We were literally cruising through a flooded forest as you do in the Amazon or in Australia’s Kakadu National Park. We even got to do some wildlife watching on the way, spotting a few herons and crocodiles.
Once we cruised out of the forest and into the ocean, the ride became more of a wild adventure than a relaxing cruise. The boat rocked on the large swells as the waves crashed onto the rocks jutting out of the water between our navigational path and the shoreline.
Thankfully, the boat driver was an expert seaman and navigated the waves with such skill that he got a wild round of applause from everyone on board. It must’ve been the adrenaline from what some of us considered to be a near-death experience. But that was before we experienced the boat ride to Corcovado, which was an entirely different level of crazy.
More on Costa Rica’s Nature and Wildlife
- Wildlife Watching at Tirimbina: Rainforest, Bridges and Close Encounters
- Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica: Wildlife, Boat Tours & Dry Forest
- What to Expect from Whale Watching in Drake Bay, Costa Rica
- 30 Costa Rica Animals and Where to See Them on Your Travels
- Spotting Wildlife in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica
- Pumas in Costa Rica: Encountering Wild Cats in Corcovado National Park
- The 6 Stunning Wild Cats of Costa Rica
- Poas Volcano and the Spectacular Costa Rica’s Continental Divide
- Exploring La Selva Biological Station: White Bats and Colorful Frogs
- 25 Landmarks in Costa Rica to Add to Your Bucket List
WOW! Your photo’s of Drake Bay are really spectacular. Clear, bright and alive.
I have friends who have a small piece of land way down on the beach, about a 30 minute walk from the dock..they put up a tent and built a cooking pit out of bricks. They have these lemon trees just loaded with fruit, the lemons are green on the outside and orange on the inside. I have to tell you I had NO idea what fruit really tasted like until I lived in CR. You can’t compare the fruit we get in Canadian supermarkets to the fruit I tasted down there. That was a real surprise to me because I thought what I was getting locally was the real thing. It’s not.
I spent a good 4 months on that beach, between Puerto Cortes (now called Ciudad Cortes), Sierpe and Drake.
In closing I want to tell/ask you something. Did you know the correct way to pronounce Drake is not like the explorer? The name Drake rhymes with
Tacky! Not a lot of people know that…
Thanks for the great images, I really enjoyed them!
Cyrus