El Camino de Costa Rica - February 2021 - Logistics

The website https://www.caminodecostarica.org provides good information on the trail and food/accommodation options. I carried wild camping equipment, and I think it would be difficult to do the trail without camping unless you spoke good Spanish and planned well in advance (most nights it would be easy to find food/accommodation without planning but there were a few places where it would be harder).

For navigation I just loaded the trail from the website onto my GPS and phone, and this worked well.

On my first day I started with 3l of water, but on subsequent days I normally only carried at most 1l at a time. I did start early in the mornings most days (around 4am), and would typically drink half a litre every two hours I was walking. Other than on my second (in the coffee plantations between Esquipulas and Napoles) I didn’t have any problems with this method and was able to find water when needed.

Mosquitos and other bugs weren’t bad, and throughout my time in Costa Rica I didn’t get bitten that much, however you should still take bug spray. I didn’t bring waterproofs to Costa Rica, and so didn’t have the option of packing any for this trip – I didn’t get rained on during the trek but you can get heavy jungle rain anytime of the year, so a lightweight poncho would be a good option. For footwear I just wore road running shoes; these worked very well given that most of the trail is on unmade road. The two jungle sections were however very muddy, and I think most people would feel a lot more comfortable in proper boots for these sections – potentially jungle/rubber boots and machetes should also be carried for these sections.

Getting to the Caribbean coast from Muelle Goshen is expensive and requires some co-ordination. My private taxi boat cost around $65 return, though I think normally there are scheduled trips that allow you to split the cost with other travellers. The docks at Muelle Goshen are outside Lirio Lodge, and they should be able to help arrange transport for you if needed.

The website splits the trek in 16 stages, though I walked it in 11 days. My days (start time to end time, including breaks) averaged just under 5.5hrs, giving a total travel time of 60 hours and an average speed of around 4.5km/h (assuming this total distance given on the website of 280km is correct).