Manuel Antonio National Park and Curu Wildlife Refuge
A brilliant coastal sunrise, periwinkle hues morphing to dawn sienna. A verdant forested coastline, and then…the bare rock islets off Manuel Antonio National Park. Promptly at eight o’clock, our Zodiacs brought the team ashore for a series of trail nature studies along the Punta Catedral and dirt road pathways. Primary and secondary coastal humid forest, sandy soils, and tall palms sporting a turquoise seascape backdrop. This would be our last wet tropical forest before sailing to more northerly tropical dry forests.
Walking with our guide, Isa, is a lifer natural history experience. Having done her graduate work in natural sciences, she had both scientific and human interest anecdotes to most of our queries. The forest had an intricate structure, levels of emergents, canopy, sub-canopy, shrub and herbs. Tremendous Guapinol trees canopied our path and the sky was fully loaded with birds indulging in the current flowering and fruiting event. All seemed abuzz with both insect and bird.
A cry went out from the lead as we spotted a brown throated 3-toed sloth. Our team glassed this for a while, fulfilling many a fantasy. Then another cry as a small troop of white faced capuchin monkeys jumped across the canopy from crown to liana and back to crown.
A solid three hour walk, and we were ready for a quick marine dip to cool off. Giant blue spectraled Ctenosaur iguanas motionless watching. Then back to the ship and our last north way sail.
Gaston gave a brilliant presentation on Costa Rica’s political and social history.
At four o’clock, the Zodiacs left ship for the Curu dry forest trails. Another sandy and bepalmed shoreline held surprises for us as the trail led to a back dune lagoon filled with a towering red and black mangrove ecosystem. A large troop of white-faced capuchin monkeys seemed committed to the sysiphian challenge of coconut cracking. In here we glassed tiger herons, puff birds, Amazon kingfisher.
Once off the tidal foreland, we climbed gentle slopes forested with drought deciduous trees. Co-dominants of Bombaceae, Anarcardaceae, Fabaceae and Ficus families in both secondary and primary forest patches. Here, our guide, Gaston, another brilliant naturalist, found us rufous-napped wrens, painted buntings, boat-billed flycatcher, northern oriel, Inca and white-tipped dove, rufous-tailed, emerald and cinnamon hummingbirds, gray tailed tanagers, long-tailed manakin and blue tailed mot mot. Howler monkeys harvested fruits high in the canopy. At foot level a mass movement of army ants catalyzed a cacophony of running, jumping, flying, fleeing insect life. The ants built body bridges scaling rock heights. Even jumping spiders could not escape the numerous antbirds which picked off the advancing ant edge.
Dusk brought the crepuscular alive, a mangrove hawk and the distinct color flashes of scarlet macaw pairs. As light dimmed, we recrossed the mangrove, catching warmed low incident sun beams off the flooding tidal waters. Relaxing to cold drinks on the shore, a friendly coatamundi made contact with the team members. At sunset, our Zodiacs brought us back home to our ship; most of us took a last Pacific dip before preparing for recap. Guests shared their expedition highlights, from the Panama Canal crossing to intimate contact with primates to corals, sharks and tremendous schools of multicolored tropical fish. All commented on the excellence of the staff, the warmth of the shipboard community, the delicious foods and the realization of many lifelong tropical dreams.
A brilliant coastal sunrise, periwinkle hues morphing to dawn sienna. A verdant forested coastline, and then…the bare rock islets off Manuel Antonio National Park. Promptly at eight o’clock, our Zodiacs brought the team ashore for a series of trail nature studies along the Punta Catedral and dirt road pathways. Primary and secondary coastal humid forest, sandy soils, and tall palms sporting a turquoise seascape backdrop. This would be our last wet tropical forest before sailing to more northerly tropical dry forests.
Walking with our guide, Isa, is a lifer natural history experience. Having done her graduate work in natural sciences, she had both scientific and human interest anecdotes to most of our queries. The forest had an intricate structure, levels of emergents, canopy, sub-canopy, shrub and herbs. Tremendous Guapinol trees canopied our path and the sky was fully loaded with birds indulging in the current flowering and fruiting event. All seemed abuzz with both insect and bird.
A cry went out from the lead as we spotted a brown throated 3-toed sloth. Our team glassed this for a while, fulfilling many a fantasy. Then another cry as a small troop of white faced capuchin monkeys jumped across the canopy from crown to liana and back to crown.
A solid three hour walk, and we were ready for a quick marine dip to cool off. Giant blue spectraled Ctenosaur iguanas motionless watching. Then back to the ship and our last north way sail.
Gaston gave a brilliant presentation on Costa Rica’s political and social history.
At four o’clock, the Zodiacs left ship for the Curu dry forest trails. Another sandy and bepalmed shoreline held surprises for us as the trail led to a back dune lagoon filled with a towering red and black mangrove ecosystem. A large troop of white-faced capuchin monkeys seemed committed to the sysiphian challenge of coconut cracking. In here we glassed tiger herons, puff birds, Amazon kingfisher.
Once off the tidal foreland, we climbed gentle slopes forested with drought deciduous trees. Co-dominants of Bombaceae, Anarcardaceae, Fabaceae and Ficus families in both secondary and primary forest patches. Here, our guide, Gaston, another brilliant naturalist, found us rufous-napped wrens, painted buntings, boat-billed flycatcher, northern oriel, Inca and white-tipped dove, rufous-tailed, emerald and cinnamon hummingbirds, gray tailed tanagers, long-tailed manakin and blue tailed mot mot. Howler monkeys harvested fruits high in the canopy. At foot level a mass movement of army ants catalyzed a cacophony of running, jumping, flying, fleeing insect life. The ants built body bridges scaling rock heights. Even jumping spiders could not escape the numerous antbirds which picked off the advancing ant edge.
Dusk brought the crepuscular alive, a mangrove hawk and the distinct color flashes of scarlet macaw pairs. As light dimmed, we recrossed the mangrove, catching warmed low incident sun beams off the flooding tidal waters. Relaxing to cold drinks on the shore, a friendly coatamundi made contact with the team members. At sunset, our Zodiacs brought us back home to our ship; most of us took a last Pacific dip before preparing for recap. Guests shared their expedition highlights, from the Panama Canal crossing to intimate contact with primates to corals, sharks and tremendous schools of multicolored tropical fish. All commented on the excellence of the staff, the warmth of the shipboard community, the delicious foods and the realization of many lifelong tropical dreams.
