Manuel Antonio National Park
This morning we woke up off the coast of Manuel Antonio National Park (MANP), the smallest (1650 acres in extension) and most visited reserve in the country’s vast system of protected areas. Since the 1970s this small and peaceful country has become a model of natural conservation for both its neighbors in the region and the world as a whole. About one fourth of the country’s territory is protected by law. This environmental commitment on behalf of the people and government of Costa Rica is of special significance since, even though it occupies less than 1% of the landmass of the world, this country hosts about 5% of the world’s biodiversity distributed throughout its twelve life zones. In MANP one can find an impressive amount of wildlife such as white face, squirrel and howler monkeys; two types of sloths, agoutis, coatis; iguanas and ctenosaurs, and countless numbers of birds, plants and insects. This park is not only small but also isolated, which yields a high concentration of animals in a very limited space. Thus finding wildlife here is not a great challenge all one has to do is look.
After breakfast we disembarked on the beach before any visitors arrived and separated into three groups with our naturalist guides. White face capuchin monkeys did not make us wait long as they came to the beach to greet us and followed us through the forest and along the trail named Punta Catedral most of the time. Then we went into the Sloth Valley where we found both the two-toed and the three-toed sloths as well spider monkeys and the great potoo (a very unusual bird). Then we went back for lunch on the ship. In the afternoon we were given several options: go back and relax on the beach or go into town and wander around and do some shopping or go on a zip line for a total of 3 miles through the forest canopy. Whatever choice we had made, when we met back on the ship for farewell dinner we could see in everyone’s face that they had seized the day once again.
This morning we woke up off the coast of Manuel Antonio National Park (MANP), the smallest (1650 acres in extension) and most visited reserve in the country’s vast system of protected areas. Since the 1970s this small and peaceful country has become a model of natural conservation for both its neighbors in the region and the world as a whole. About one fourth of the country’s territory is protected by law. This environmental commitment on behalf of the people and government of Costa Rica is of special significance since, even though it occupies less than 1% of the landmass of the world, this country hosts about 5% of the world’s biodiversity distributed throughout its twelve life zones. In MANP one can find an impressive amount of wildlife such as white face, squirrel and howler monkeys; two types of sloths, agoutis, coatis; iguanas and ctenosaurs, and countless numbers of birds, plants and insects. This park is not only small but also isolated, which yields a high concentration of animals in a very limited space. Thus finding wildlife here is not a great challenge all one has to do is look.
After breakfast we disembarked on the beach before any visitors arrived and separated into three groups with our naturalist guides. White face capuchin monkeys did not make us wait long as they came to the beach to greet us and followed us through the forest and along the trail named Punta Catedral most of the time. Then we went into the Sloth Valley where we found both the two-toed and the three-toed sloths as well spider monkeys and the great potoo (a very unusual bird). Then we went back for lunch on the ship. In the afternoon we were given several options: go back and relax on the beach or go into town and wander around and do some shopping or go on a zip line for a total of 3 miles through the forest canopy. Whatever choice we had made, when we met back on the ship for farewell dinner we could see in everyone’s face that they had seized the day once again.
