We had a great time snorkeling (many fish, sea turtles, a sting ray, a shark and my daugher even saw an octupus!). We also saw some dolfphins and false killer whales on our trip to the snorkeling. After snorkeling in two locations we stopped at a beach and had a wonderful lunch and time to swim. Great weather, great snorkeling and great people!!!!! This is a do not miss activity in Drake Bay!
What a day! We did the San Pedrilla +Sirena Station tour in Corcovado park. On our walking/hiking portion of the tour we saw all of the different monkey species (spider, howler, white faced cappuchin) as well as many birds, a family of coati, a crocodile as well as an anteater AND a Puma. During our afternoon boat ride, we saw a family of dolphins AND some hump back whales. Our tour guide Keller was excellent. He was knowledgeable and accepted the challenge to find the puma with our limited time towards the end of the tour. Thanks to Elsa for her help in planning this. It was also great to have morning pick up at Southern Drake Lodge so that we did not have to walk into town at 6 in the morning!!!!
We very much enjoyed a snorkeling tour to Caño island which we have kept in vivid memories. On the boat ride to the island, we had the chance to meet a pod of dolphins. Our experienced guide was Elsa. - Her "business secret" is to bring her group of snorkelers to the various sites well ahead of those led by the other organizations. - Elsa's tactics were then the likely reason, why we managed to still see various of the larger species at the first snorkeling spot before they would have risked to swim away: Several white-tipped sharks, some rays, and two species of sea turtles. Having just left the boat for snorkeling, the first turtle could not be easily identified by most of us between the rocks on the ground. However Elsa spontaneously dived down there to directly hint at that "camouflaged" individual.
The second spot was between stony corals, where a variety of colorful fish, larger individuals, as well as schools of smaller ones could be watched.
At the end of the tour, a delicious Casado dish was offered on the scenic Playa San Josecito, well before... - well before the others had arrived as well
La Sirena Station itself is absolutely stunning, and the amount of wildlife in the area is incredible. Animals are literally everywhere — you don’t have to search for them at all. Unfortunately, despite this huge potential, the tour itself was disappointing.
Our guide even extended the tour by skipping lunch, which we appreciated. However, instead of using that extra time for wildlife observation, we mostly rushed through the jungle. It often felt like we were randomly running along trails on our own, only to arrive at the entrance areas where large groups were already standing and observing animals. The tour felt unstructured, and as a result we lost a lot of valuable observation time.
Three hours on site is simply far too short to truly see, observe, and appreciate the wildlife — especially in a place like Corcovado. The whole setup feels geared toward mass tourism rather than personal or meaningful nature experiences. Even a private tour didn’t offer any real advantage.
We are wildlife photographers and fully understand that wildlife is unpredictable — that is never something we would criticize. The frustrating part here is that the animals are there, in huge numbers and with amazing diversity, but you’re constantly moving, without time to observe properly or even attempt photography.
Overall, we were not satisfied. The guide appeared unstructured and at times more focused on joking with other guides than engaging with us or the environment. La Sirena itself is an incredible place, but it clearly suffers from heavy commercialization.
We would not book with this provider again, and under these circumstances we would also not visit La Sirena again. For us, the price-performance ratio simply doesn’t make sense. A day tour should last a full day — not just three hours.