Corcovado National Park & Caletas Beach, Costa Rica
Today we have visited another one of Costa Rica’s most pristine and isolated National Parks, Corcovado.
We started our day by disembarking early morning at Caletas Conservation Area, on the buffer zone adjacent to the park. We are thankful to continue to be welcomed by the good weather that has accompanied us during this week's expedition. After circling in the ocean on the search of an elusive whale, we stopped to spend the afternoon at the San Pedrillo sector in Corcovado.
As we start exploring the rain forest we constantly listen overhead the rattle and squawking of scarlet macaws flying above us, and we struggled to get a glimpse of them - maybe even a flash of red through the gaps of dense canopy. We could also listen to the call of distant howler monkeys and the beautiful songs of the multiple invisible small birds that inhabit the understory. After coming from the open beach, we got into the dark very soon under the thick cover of green. The towering trees, lianas, and epiphytes mercilessly compete in this guerrilla warfare for light.
Good day for monkeys today, howler monkeys and spider monkeys!
Spider monkeys are special; they are like thermometers of the health of the Rain Forest, exceptional five limbed acrobats. They are basically frugivores and fruit is not an easily available resource in these forests. They have to cover a lot of ground in search of the trees that are bearing fruit. They need large extensions of healthy forest to survive. If the forest starts shrinking they are among the first to be affected.
What an interesting place this Tropical Rainforest is indeed! How incredibly contradictory that such a rich place is at the same time so poor, that such poor soils sustain so much diversity of life above them. It is also misleading how so much is going on, while hidden under this cover of densely homogeneous greenery.
Today we have visited another one of Costa Rica’s most pristine and isolated National Parks, Corcovado.
We started our day by disembarking early morning at Caletas Conservation Area, on the buffer zone adjacent to the park. We are thankful to continue to be welcomed by the good weather that has accompanied us during this week's expedition. After circling in the ocean on the search of an elusive whale, we stopped to spend the afternoon at the San Pedrillo sector in Corcovado.
As we start exploring the rain forest we constantly listen overhead the rattle and squawking of scarlet macaws flying above us, and we struggled to get a glimpse of them - maybe even a flash of red through the gaps of dense canopy. We could also listen to the call of distant howler monkeys and the beautiful songs of the multiple invisible small birds that inhabit the understory. After coming from the open beach, we got into the dark very soon under the thick cover of green. The towering trees, lianas, and epiphytes mercilessly compete in this guerrilla warfare for light.
Good day for monkeys today, howler monkeys and spider monkeys!
Spider monkeys are special; they are like thermometers of the health of the Rain Forest, exceptional five limbed acrobats. They are basically frugivores and fruit is not an easily available resource in these forests. They have to cover a lot of ground in search of the trees that are bearing fruit. They need large extensions of healthy forest to survive. If the forest starts shrinking they are among the first to be affected.
What an interesting place this Tropical Rainforest is indeed! How incredibly contradictory that such a rich place is at the same time so poor, that such poor soils sustain so much diversity of life above them. It is also misleading how so much is going on, while hidden under this cover of densely homogeneous greenery.
