A Trip into Town
If you'd like to check out a Costa Rican version of the great Wild West, take a short trip to Puerto Jiménez. Gold miners still trek in to sell their wares, while flocks of scarlet macaws descend on the almond trees that line the town's soccer field. And though there are no large tourist attractions, it's a worthwhile stop for a couple of hours on a slow afternoon to take in the local culture.
Walk the dusty main streets and you'll discover vintage, clapboard houses built in the early part of the 20th century. A particularly striking example of this frontier architecture is the yellow 1930s The Santamaría House, down the street from Restaurant Carolina. The restaurant opens early for breakfast, but visit in the afternoon when locals and tourists gather on the open deck to watch the world go by, drink a cold beer, and enjoy fresh seviche and plates of toasted plantains (known locally as patacones). For dinner, opt for Il Giardino, a romantic garden patio that serves clay-oven pizzas to an international crowd.
Worth a stop in Puerto Jiménez is Jagua (011-506-735-5267; open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Run by the amiable and knowledgeable Karen Herrera, the shop specializes in indigenous crafts, including the hand-carved wooden masks of the Borucas, a regional tribe, and the colorful clothing woven by the peninsula's Guaymi Indians.
Golden Opportunity
A walk through Puerto Jiménez (population 7,000), the peninsula's largest town, will take you past several windows that bear placards reading, "We Buy Gold." The culture of gold mining remains present in the Osa, but it's in decline. Sign up for a hike with the congenial folks at Osa Aventura ($50 per person; 011-506-735-5670, www.osaaventura.com), who will take you to an operative mining site where you can try your luck at striking oro (gold) and learn about the labor-intensive process of extracting nuggets from a hillside. The six-hour walk starts early and follows a riverbed leading into hills. There you'll meet local workers who'll teach you panning and other mining techniques—and perhaps share a few good yarns about the heady gold rush days of the 1980s. The walk is not difficult but at one point requires scrambling over a few large rocks. It's preferable to make reservations in advance by e-mail. Group sizes are small, and the tour books quickly.
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