Curu Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica
Today we woke up in front of Manuel Antonio National Park, one of Costa Rica’s most popular parks. After walking just a couple yards, everyone understood the popularity of this national park: howler monkeys getting their morning sunbath; white-faced capuchin monkey mothers with their newborns strolling between the visitors; a large troop of squirrel monkeys foraging above the old access road; black iguanas on the sides of the trails; a big family of proboscides bats (including two females with young attached tightly to their chests); a couple of pale-billed woodpeckers building their nest; a lonely coatimundi looking for insects in the litter; and many other things that would make this report much too long.
What a wonderful last day on the wild side of Central America.
But that wasn’t all for this day. Just to make it better, we sailed north to a completely different ecosystem: the tropical dry forest of Curu Wildlife Refuge in the Nicoya Peninsula. Curu is well known for its rehabilitation programs in which former pet animals were rehabilitated to survive in the tropical rainforest. Lily, the spider monkey in the picture, is one of these examples. Even though she is not totally adapted for a life in the wild, she lives a free one. There are lots of wild sides in Central America, but also there are many others to be saved and recover. The aim is to keep them, not only wild and pristine, also to open those and other corners of the world to visitors; to prove that there are alternative ways of development. The aim is to create a better world with a better future.
Today we woke up in front of Manuel Antonio National Park, one of Costa Rica’s most popular parks. After walking just a couple yards, everyone understood the popularity of this national park: howler monkeys getting their morning sunbath; white-faced capuchin monkey mothers with their newborns strolling between the visitors; a large troop of squirrel monkeys foraging above the old access road; black iguanas on the sides of the trails; a big family of proboscides bats (including two females with young attached tightly to their chests); a couple of pale-billed woodpeckers building their nest; a lonely coatimundi looking for insects in the litter; and many other things that would make this report much too long.
What a wonderful last day on the wild side of Central America.
But that wasn’t all for this day. Just to make it better, we sailed north to a completely different ecosystem: the tropical dry forest of Curu Wildlife Refuge in the Nicoya Peninsula. Curu is well known for its rehabilitation programs in which former pet animals were rehabilitated to survive in the tropical rainforest. Lily, the spider monkey in the picture, is one of these examples. Even though she is not totally adapted for a life in the wild, she lives a free one. There are lots of wild sides in Central America, but also there are many others to be saved and recover. The aim is to keep them, not only wild and pristine, also to open those and other corners of the world to visitors; to prove that there are alternative ways of development. The aim is to create a better world with a better future.
