Camino de Costa Rica Map Poster

The Camino de Costa Rica is a 280 km (174 mi) walk across Costa Rica from the Caribbean to the Pacific, from the sandbar village of Barra de Parismina to Quepos. No road or path reaches the mainland from the start, so it opens with a 20 km (12 mi) boat ride through the coastal canals, then crosses plantation country, Cabécar forest and the Río Pacuare. From the terraces above Lake Angostura it climbs through the cloud forest of Tapantí National Park to its high point at El Empalme, about 2,340 m (7,680 ft), and comes down through the coffee slopes of Los Santos to the sea.

The route is split into 16 stages, and most people walk it in 12 to 16 days, with about 7,250 m (23,800 ft) of climbing. The hardest climbing comes on the way up to Tapantí and to Cerro Alto. On Stages 3 and 4 the trail crosses the Nairi Awari Cabécar territory, where walkers must by law go with a local Indigenous guide.

The idea came from Conchita Espino, who walked the Camino de Santiago in 2011 and wanted a long trail through the parts of Costa Rica tourism had passed by. Asociación Mar a Mar opened it in 2018 and routed it through small rural villages, so there are no huts or hotels: walkers stay in family homes, small lodges and community guesthouses. Mar a mar, sea to sea, every stage turned into a Camino de Costa Rica map poster worth hanging.