Manuel Antonio National Park & Curu Wild Life Refuge
Our last day of this seven day expedition, and what a day it was! We awoke in the morning anchor off Manuel Antonio National Park on the central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. This park is considered a jewel of the country’s national park system. With a beautiful tropical rain forest that literally comes down the mountain to spill into the ocean at beautiful sandy beaches and colorful, warm water. The perfect place to go on a hike into the forest, looking for wildlife, is what the park is famous for. Or take a dip in the warm water of the Pacific on our last day. Or simply relax on a beach chair under the shade of the forest and enjoy the view and the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. And that was exactly what we did.
After breakfast we went on nature hikes into the forest and got great looks at howler monkeys, white throated capuchin monkeys, Central American agouties, black iguanas and three toed sloths, including a mom with a baby. This place is too small to harbor large animals, especially the ones known as Alpha predators. These larger predators will keep the growth of the medium sized animals under control, so the latter have gone into a demographic explosion and become very abundant in this park, and some of them are quite comfortable around people. We also had our last swim in the Pacific warm water and relaxed on the beach.
In the afternoon we repositioned to the Nicoya Peninsula, the largest of the country, in order to see some dry forest during the dry season. This is one of the most endangered ecosystems that are in the tropics and it is almost gone.
At Refugio Curu we had a great time learning about this type of tropical forest and saw some of the birds and animals that are associated to it, such as white-throated magpie-jay, turquoise browed motmot, black-headed trogon as well as more white throated capuchin monkeys, and howler monkeys.
Not a bad last day at all as you can see.
Our last day of this seven day expedition, and what a day it was! We awoke in the morning anchor off Manuel Antonio National Park on the central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. This park is considered a jewel of the country’s national park system. With a beautiful tropical rain forest that literally comes down the mountain to spill into the ocean at beautiful sandy beaches and colorful, warm water. The perfect place to go on a hike into the forest, looking for wildlife, is what the park is famous for. Or take a dip in the warm water of the Pacific on our last day. Or simply relax on a beach chair under the shade of the forest and enjoy the view and the sound of the waves breaking on the shore. And that was exactly what we did.
After breakfast we went on nature hikes into the forest and got great looks at howler monkeys, white throated capuchin monkeys, Central American agouties, black iguanas and three toed sloths, including a mom with a baby. This place is too small to harbor large animals, especially the ones known as Alpha predators. These larger predators will keep the growth of the medium sized animals under control, so the latter have gone into a demographic explosion and become very abundant in this park, and some of them are quite comfortable around people. We also had our last swim in the Pacific warm water and relaxed on the beach.
In the afternoon we repositioned to the Nicoya Peninsula, the largest of the country, in order to see some dry forest during the dry season. This is one of the most endangered ecosystems that are in the tropics and it is almost gone.
At Refugio Curu we had a great time learning about this type of tropical forest and saw some of the birds and animals that are associated to it, such as white-throated magpie-jay, turquoise browed motmot, black-headed trogon as well as more white throated capuchin monkeys, and howler monkeys.
Not a bad last day at all as you can see.
