Península de Osa, Corcovado National Park
British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace once implied that though there could be places where richness in diversity is high, the number of individuals within a single species often tends to be low. This is another way of saying that rarity is usual among many species. These words beautifully describe what The Osa Peninsula, a region of immense biological diversity, is all about. Today, we decided to spend the entire day in this area, a huge contrast with the previous park we just visit. Our first stop was Las Caletas, a privately owned buffer zone for the Corcovado National Park.
As we unloaded the Zodiacs we could appreciate tall, evergreen trees supporting a rich flora of epiphytes, orchids, bromeliads and lichens. As we got ready for our morning activities, chestnut mandible toucans were the first ones to greet us. A relative sparse under-story vegetation made it possible for us to take walks through the forest while others decided to horseback ride through a trail where the beach meets the forest. Here we were able to see spider monkeys, Aztec ants, leaf-cutter ants, and a great deal of birds and insects. Afterwards our hotel staff delighted us with a BBQ lunch on shore, which allowed us to enjoy more of this interesting location.
After resting we headed out to the heart of the Corcovado National Park known as San Pedrillo. Here we visited two different trails. One led us along the coastal forest where we saw coatis, agoutis, monkeys and antbirds. The other, a root covered trail that lets us to a waterfall that gave us the opportunity to take a dip in the warmth waters of the tropics. During this 2 mile hike we enjoy the company of 2 different species of monkeys, the spider monkeys and the white faced capuchins, as well as an anteater, rarities, which are usual in this park.
We said goodbye to this amazing little corner of Costa Rica under a beautiful sunset and watching bare-throated tiger-herons, pelicans and frigatebirds disappearing under the line of the horizon. In the end the day wouldn’t have been complete without an evening of salsa dancing as we learned more about the local music and traditions.
A rainforest in its purest form is essentially what we saw in Peninsula de Osa. A forest dominated by tall, green, complex-looking trees with lush vegetation and dense foliage above. Many Naturalists in the past have described it as a breathtaking experience and National Geographic name it one of the most diverse places in the world. Nevertheless, it was Wallace in the end who reminds us “here no one who has any feeling of the magnificent and the sublime can be disappointed.”
