Curu Wildlife Refuge & Tortuga Island
Today we started our morning in the Southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula; we disembarked in Curu Wildlife Refuge, a private initiative with the mission to protect the critters of the region.
As we were landing, hundreds of red crabs were as herds, moving away from us. We divided the groups and started our hikes, exploring through the paths of this transitional rainforest. There are some months of the year where all plants seem dry, trees shed their leaves in order to survive the drought, but now, they were lush green.
Although it is not always easy to see wildlife in the forest, we had a change to hear, and then see, howler monkeys. It seemed the males had some “territorial disputes” since they kept howling louder than one another. We also spotted black-headed trogons, rufous-naped wrens, white tail deer, colorful mangrove fiddler crabs and golden orb spiders. As we were close a lagoon a brown basilisk, a lizard than can sustain itself on the surface of the water, made its way across in few seconds, some of the sightings in the forest take only a glimpse.
The weather was warm and clear, great for swimming as well. Later in the afternoon, after a short reposition, we landed in the white sand beach of Tortuga Island, for snorkeling, kayaking, playing soccer on the beach or just relaxing as the day went by here in the tropics.
Today we started our morning in the Southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula; we disembarked in Curu Wildlife Refuge, a private initiative with the mission to protect the critters of the region.
As we were landing, hundreds of red crabs were as herds, moving away from us. We divided the groups and started our hikes, exploring through the paths of this transitional rainforest. There are some months of the year where all plants seem dry, trees shed their leaves in order to survive the drought, but now, they were lush green.
Although it is not always easy to see wildlife in the forest, we had a change to hear, and then see, howler monkeys. It seemed the males had some “territorial disputes” since they kept howling louder than one another. We also spotted black-headed trogons, rufous-naped wrens, white tail deer, colorful mangrove fiddler crabs and golden orb spiders. As we were close a lagoon a brown basilisk, a lizard than can sustain itself on the surface of the water, made its way across in few seconds, some of the sightings in the forest take only a glimpse.
The weather was warm and clear, great for swimming as well. Later in the afternoon, after a short reposition, we landed in the white sand beach of Tortuga Island, for snorkeling, kayaking, playing soccer on the beach or just relaxing as the day went by here in the tropics.
