Brief facts about Yorkin

The village of Yorkin, Costa Rica is home to about 25o people and approximately 45 families.  The people of Yorkin are part of the indigenous BriBri tribe that have been living in the area since before the time of Colombus.  The village is located along the Yorkin River, which makes up part of the Costa Rican-Panamanian border in the central mountainous region.  

Yorkin is a village in the middle of a jungle.  It is completely surround by hills and mountains covered with thick, lush vegetation - a dense, green landscape in all directions.   The easiest accessiblity to the village is by dug-out canoe - about a 90 minute ride upstream from a little town called Bambu, which is about 10km further inland from the larger border city of BriBri.  Without a boat, it is about a 3 hour hike through the mountains to get from Bambu to Yorkin. 

The village of Yorkin covers a territory of about 8,000 hectares (almost 20,000 acres) and includes many cacao and banana farms.   In the past, these agricultural resources were the main source of income for the people in this area, until the more recent development of eco-tourism in the village.

Mountains surrounding the village

Dugout canoes along the river

Some of the children in Yorkin

Visitors making their way to the village

Approximate location of Yorkin on the map of Costa Rica