Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
Today I feel that we were the attraction. To finish a wonderful week with amazing quantities of wildlife seen on our different trips, we had a great end in our smallest National Park. In Manuel Antonio, medium-sized mammals roam at will paying little attention to humans. Our many photo opportunities were overwhelming. The fact that we had the chance of seeing monkeys, agoutis, coatis, raccoons, sloths, bats and many species of birds, frogs and reptiles makes us wonder if they were as interested in watching us as much as we wanted to watch them. As we were disembarking, we were visited by the white-throated capuchins and the white-nosed coati; on the trail the Central American agouti crossed our path and the spectacled caiman was camouflaged under water watching the people pass by. When we reached the sloth valley trail, the three-toed sloth started to move, to climb up and down and to brag about their healthy offspring, seemingly posing for the camera.
We returned to the ship for lunch and weighed anchor to cruise into deeper seas and to a sea mount in the search for marine life. As we were about to quit, a fishing boat turned into our new attraction. Frigatebirds, laughing gulls, royal terns, brown pelicans, pink footed shearwaters, pomarine jaegers, brown boobies, least and black storm petrels and Pantropical spotted dolphins followed the boat. As we approached, the dolphins showed some curiosity and came to our ship, seemingly enjoying the audience for the spectacular show that they put on for us (or for themselves) for more than an hour as the sun set in red and rose. A special ending for a special week.
Today I feel that we were the attraction. To finish a wonderful week with amazing quantities of wildlife seen on our different trips, we had a great end in our smallest National Park. In Manuel Antonio, medium-sized mammals roam at will paying little attention to humans. Our many photo opportunities were overwhelming. The fact that we had the chance of seeing monkeys, agoutis, coatis, raccoons, sloths, bats and many species of birds, frogs and reptiles makes us wonder if they were as interested in watching us as much as we wanted to watch them. As we were disembarking, we were visited by the white-throated capuchins and the white-nosed coati; on the trail the Central American agouti crossed our path and the spectacled caiman was camouflaged under water watching the people pass by. When we reached the sloth valley trail, the three-toed sloth started to move, to climb up and down and to brag about their healthy offspring, seemingly posing for the camera.
We returned to the ship for lunch and weighed anchor to cruise into deeper seas and to a sea mount in the search for marine life. As we were about to quit, a fishing boat turned into our new attraction. Frigatebirds, laughing gulls, royal terns, brown pelicans, pink footed shearwaters, pomarine jaegers, brown boobies, least and black storm petrels and Pantropical spotted dolphins followed the boat. As we approached, the dolphins showed some curiosity and came to our ship, seemingly enjoying the audience for the spectacular show that they put on for us (or for themselves) for more than an hour as the sun set in red and rose. A special ending for a special week.
