Playa Caletas & Corcovado National Park, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
We left the Golfo Dulce for Drake Bay. In times of pirates and buccaneers, this small bay was once shelter for Sir Francis Drake. This pristine and rich rainforest still provides a reliable amount of fresh water. The rainforest has not changed over the centuries and we can appreciate today the same lush vegetation with a different perspective. The wild merciless jungle intimidated the conquerors and today we are eager to discover the intricate relationships among the vast diversity of creatures that inhabit our rainforests.
We arrived shortly before sunrise to our anchorage site off Playa Caletas. This beach is a wildlife refuge to protect an important nesting site of the Olive Ridley sea turtle. Behind the garden the owner keeps well-maintained, he protects an important patch of mature rainforest that borders with the Corcovado National Park. During our visit, we found a three toed sloth, howler monkeys and white throated capuchins.
We repositioned south to Corcovado National Park over lunch. It is one of the jewels of the Costa Rican National Park system. On our walks, we saw crocodiles, lizards, frogs, macaws and different trogons. On the flat walk, Federico spotted a black cheeked ant-tanager. This bird is one of the few endemic species of birds in Costa Rica. It was once thought to be extinct even though there has been a stable population in the area; population the ornithologists were not seeing.
On our way to the ship, the macaws posed for a few seconds on a high branch. After the typical Costa Rican dinner, we went back on deck to watch the greater (bulldog) fishing bats as they skimmed the surface of the water for fish. We enjoyed a beautiful clear sky and the stars above.
