Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
I know that Central America’s sunrises are beautiful by default, but the one we had today fit the category of gorgeous!
Right after the sunrise, I grabbed my usual cup of Costa Rican coffee and started to walk around the ship. Some of the guests were already up on the sky deck taking stretching classes with our wellness coordinator on board, Ines. As she described the movements to be done, I couldn’t help but think that what I was looking at was taken from a catalog or a magazine about health and fitness; that is a great way to begin a day, I thought to myself.
Manuel Antonio town was located not too far from where the ship anchored, and looked small and quiet, but I knew that it was about to change during the next couple of hours, as we are in the middle of holidays in Costa Rica and Manuel Antonio is not only a town, but a National Park as well.
Despite the fact that the Park is small, it is visited daily by hundreds of people. We were lucky to enjoy a section of the park that is less frequently accessed by visitors, as it is far from the entrance. The beach was calm and gorgeous, and the water temperatures were very warm, almost in the eighties!
I couldn’t ask for more, so everything else was really an extra bonus. Monkeys, sloths and the opportunity to see them so close, is the major attraction of this park. Animals here seem to be everywhere and you just need the keen eyes of the naturalists to help you find them.
As you might imagine, the tropical rain forest has a uniform color, green. As this is a healthy ecosystem, everything falls into the category of prey or predator, so animals need a camouflaging technique to be able to escape such predation or to blend into the environment enough to be able to catch their prey. We saw several cases of that today during both of our walks in the forest, as we hardly saw anything until the naturalists pointed at them, realizing then that they were right in front of our eyes!
The canopy zip lining option for some of the guests was both fun and exhilarating! We had great attendance to this option, as the feeling of flying through the jungle using the tree canopies is something that you don’t experience every day.
Once we left Manuel Antonio National Park we found ourselves observing some of the first humpback whales of the season. By this time of year, they start their yearly migration from the frigid waters of the north to give birth to their babies in the much warmer waters. That was the case today when we encountered a female humpback whale with a newly born baby, giving us a great look of their abilities when it comes to breaching.
As we are fully aware of the respect that they deserved, we maintained our distance from the whales so they don’t feel threatened in any way. We observed them for a while and then continued with our journey visiting these two wonderful countries of Costa Rica and Panama.
I know that Central America’s sunrises are beautiful by default, but the one we had today fit the category of gorgeous!
Right after the sunrise, I grabbed my usual cup of Costa Rican coffee and started to walk around the ship. Some of the guests were already up on the sky deck taking stretching classes with our wellness coordinator on board, Ines. As she described the movements to be done, I couldn’t help but think that what I was looking at was taken from a catalog or a magazine about health and fitness; that is a great way to begin a day, I thought to myself.
Manuel Antonio town was located not too far from where the ship anchored, and looked small and quiet, but I knew that it was about to change during the next couple of hours, as we are in the middle of holidays in Costa Rica and Manuel Antonio is not only a town, but a National Park as well.
Despite the fact that the Park is small, it is visited daily by hundreds of people. We were lucky to enjoy a section of the park that is less frequently accessed by visitors, as it is far from the entrance. The beach was calm and gorgeous, and the water temperatures were very warm, almost in the eighties!
I couldn’t ask for more, so everything else was really an extra bonus. Monkeys, sloths and the opportunity to see them so close, is the major attraction of this park. Animals here seem to be everywhere and you just need the keen eyes of the naturalists to help you find them.
As you might imagine, the tropical rain forest has a uniform color, green. As this is a healthy ecosystem, everything falls into the category of prey or predator, so animals need a camouflaging technique to be able to escape such predation or to blend into the environment enough to be able to catch their prey. We saw several cases of that today during both of our walks in the forest, as we hardly saw anything until the naturalists pointed at them, realizing then that they were right in front of our eyes!
The canopy zip lining option for some of the guests was both fun and exhilarating! We had great attendance to this option, as the feeling of flying through the jungle using the tree canopies is something that you don’t experience every day.
Once we left Manuel Antonio National Park we found ourselves observing some of the first humpback whales of the season. By this time of year, they start their yearly migration from the frigid waters of the north to give birth to their babies in the much warmer waters. That was the case today when we encountered a female humpback whale with a newly born baby, giving us a great look of their abilities when it comes to breaching.
As we are fully aware of the respect that they deserved, we maintained our distance from the whales so they don’t feel threatened in any way. We observed them for a while and then continued with our journey visiting these two wonderful countries of Costa Rica and Panama.
