Manuel Antonio National Park, Marino Ballena Park, Osa Peninsula, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
What a great beginning we had! Today we started our trip on board the National Geographic Sea Lion exploring the tropical forest of Central America between Costa Rica and Panama.
We spent the first part of the morning exploring a couple of nature trails at Manuel Antonio National Park. This place is considered by many people to be the most beautiful site in the Costa Rican park system. There are many reasons, but the main one is the combination of tropical forest,s beautiful sandy beaches and the ease of sighting many medium sized mammals, specifically monkeys and sloths.
Observing an abundant number of mammals is possible due to the small size of this territory and the reduced amount of large predators. In an area without the presence of big alpha predators, the medium size animals such as monkeys and sloths, go into a demographic explosion; making this area one of the best places to look for them.
We became witnesses of the high density of wildlife in the park, and observed three toed and the two toed sloths; some of them even active. Howler monkeys were right above our heads, with females carrying their babies. A troop of white throated capuchin monkeys came right up to our landing as we were leaving.
The rest of our day we spend on a nice pleasant sail looking for marine life, reading and attending a lecture on tropical ecology.
