The Tamales region is halfway between the Osa Peninsula’s iconic Cape Matapalo and its bustling commercial center of Puerto Jimenez. Just a short fifteen minutes from town, the region is rural and filled with wildlife and is an ideal spot for a private home or estate or an ecotourism enterprise like an ecolodge.

Long, Sandy Beach

The beach is long and sandy without any rocks in the Tamales region. It is in an indentation of land—not quite a cove—that attenuates the surf reaching it, making it great for body surfing and safe swimming—no longshore or rip currents at all—yet not quite big enough for surfing except during large swells resulting from storms in the Southern Ocean.

Somberero Point

The next point to the south from Tamales is Sombrero Point, and from that point southward to the cape, there are several surf breaks that are popular, culminating in what is often considered world-class surf in Matapalo.

The Tamales region has thirty or so years of secondary recovery, and today’s featured listing is lightly forested and spans the land between the Carate highway and the beach. It is bounded on one side by Blue Osa Lodge and on the other side by a new budget lodge that just began operations earlier this year.

The property has a small section (1,429 square meters) of titled land, ready and available for building in any style desired. The remaining 2.43 hectares is the maritime zone. The property has a valid and active use permit that is administered by the Municipality of Golfito. Tamales is beyond the power grid, so solar power is only for this destination. There is a hand-dug well on the property for water supply.

Expect to be regularly visited by a wide range of wildlife, including various species of monkeys, anteaters and opossums, plus raccoons, coatis, agoutis, jaguarondi, and all kinds of birds, featuring scarlet macaws toucans but also brown pelicans, aracari, mot-mots, caracara, owls, and many, many more.

The epic Golfo Dulce that breaks onto the golden sand of Tamales beach was pegged by Jacques Cousteau as one of only four tropical fjords on the planet. It is the tenth deepest gulf in the world and is named for the freshwater inputs from the nine rivers that discharge into it. It is home to two annual migrations of humpback whales and is a spawning ground for whale sharks. It is an active fishery as well, and surfcasting from the beach can result in snapper, jack, mackerel, and other fish; about 100 meters to the north the mouth of the Tamales River is a great spot to fill a stringer with snook. And with a boat, dial yourself in for roosterfish, amberjack, marlin, sailfish, mahi mahi, and wahoo. Because of the shelter from the open Pacific afforded by Sombrero Point, anchored mooring is viable for this destination, so you can have your boat a few hundred feed from the shore and get to and fro by kayak.