Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

It has been seven wonderful days full of adventures, and even during our very last day, the sightings of wildlife did not decrease. In fact, I would confidently say that our wildlife sightings have been increasing every day. This is probably a normal situation when you visit the tropical forest, since animals become more noticeable once your eyes get used to searching in even the most unlikely places. Our chance to enjoy wildlife today increased also by the fact that we visited one of the smallest national parks in Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio National Park. With only 3400 acres of land, Manuel Antonio holds one of the richest ecosystems of Costa Rica. A couple of local expert eyes joined us during this trip, and enriched our morning experience even more. Armed with long range scopes, the local guides took us early in the morning along the forest located not too far from our landing area. It did not take too long for our experts to find perching Ospreys, herons and several species of land birds, such as the black hooted antshrike, slaty tailed trogon and even the allusive common potoo, which is a very rare species to observe at day time.

The day became great for the mammal lovers, as quite a few species were spotted along the trail as well. Lesser white-lined bats, agoutis, white-faced capuchin and howler monkeys were among the sightings during the early part of the morning, but as the morning progressed, we were blessed by the presence of several three toed sloths resting peacefully up on the trees. One of them became very active, but let’s get real, how active can you be when you are a sloth? Well, we got a good example of that concept today, as the animal moved at millimeters a minute (or so it seemed). It really looked as if your eyes were set for slow motion, since the sloth started to move very slowly throughout the branches, giving us all an excellent view of its face and its characteristic scar on the back for males. The morning would not be complete without the swimming experience, of which we were all very grateful to have. The eighty degree waters embraced us all once back at the beach, and refreshed our tired bodies and enriched this wonderful last day in paradise even more.