Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
Our first day of the voyage found us early in the morning just off the bay in Manuel Antonio National Park. This is one of Costa Rica’s smallest parks, but also one of the best known and most visited of all the parks. Manuel Antonio is somewhat isolated from other pieces of forest by pastureland and the Pacific Ocean. Nonetheless, it has become a haven for medium sized mammals such as sloths, three species of monkeys, agoutis, coatis, raccoons and many other non-mammal species. Walking the trails within this park can turn into one of the most intense forest experiences. The park also protects one of the most endangered types of forests in the country, referred to as a “transitional forest”. Its name comes from the fact that it is indeed right in between the seasonally dry forest in the Northern Pacific and the lowland wet tropical rainforest in southernmost area of the country. Walking through Manuel Antonio’s trails is an incredible experience, as it also depicts flora from two very different habitats apart from the animals we all want to see.
This morning, we disembarked onto the beaches of the park and were captivated immediately by the wonderful sandy beach and the lush green trees draping over it. As we separated into our choices of hikes for the morning, we could hear the howler monkey calls far away. True to its fame, the Park granted us wonderful sightings of howler and capuchin monkeys, two and three toed sloths, crab eating raccoons, agoutis, black ctenosaurs (iguana like lizards), ospreys, aracaris, laughing falcon and incredibly enough a king vulture. We all came back form our hikes talking about what we had seen and photographed. Then we went to the beach for a well deserved dip in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean and had a fantastic lunch on board. During the middle of the afternoon, we weighed anchor towards the southernmost peninsula of Costa Rica.
We anchored inside Drake’s Bay on the northwestern side of the Osa Peninsula to wait for the following day’s surprises.
