Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
Costa Rica and Panama were the last pieces of a landmass, which put the closure stone to one of the most important and dramatic land bridges on our planet. For over a hundred million years, South America drifted away from Africa, turning into a gigantic island with very particular flora and fauna. Monkeys with prehensile tails, armadillos 4 feet long, anteaters that climbed trees, porcupines, terror birds that could reach 9 ft tall, and three families of sloth, ranging from an elephant to a horse size.
North America from another side was partially isolated; every now and then ice bridges connect it with Asia, giving the chance for many species of mammals to enter a new continent. Bears, saber-toothed cats, wild pigs, camels, horses, weasels, and wild dogs, among other warm-blooded carnivores, moved as far down as Salvador and Nicaragua, which, during that time (16 million years ago), were a recently formed archipelago of volcanic islands. Panama and Costa Rica were still too spread apart from both continents to allow animals to swim across.
Finally by 2.4 million years ago, our two young countries closed the land bridge and witnessed the most dramatic biotic interchange. Sloth moved as far north as Alaska, camels vanished from North America but flourished in the south, warm blooded carnivores like cats, dogs and wild pigs filled out every single niche that the South American tropical rain forest opened for them. At the end, 50 percent of the mammal genera that we consider so tropical actually are descendents from North American families, and just three species of animals from the south are the only survivors from the south, the Virginia opossum, the Mexican porcupine and the nine-banded armadillo.
Today, for the last day of our trip, we visited one of the most paradisiacal place in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is that green emerald forest loaded with monkeys, sloth, blue butterflies, charming birds and calm turquoise waters. But today was monkey day; we could not ask for better close ups from white-faced monkeys chewing on anything and everything, as they drove away a troop of at least 30 red-backed squirrel monkeys that screamed as they moved away. Squirrel monkeys are particularly hard to find due to their very restricted geographical range. In Costa Rica, they are just found here and the Osa peninsula and western Panama, so to enjoy them and their behavior was the best way to end our trip.
As Costa Rica and Panama connected two great continents, this trip has given us the chance to know, talk about, enjoy and share wonderful moments with so many different people with very different knowledge, expectations, dreams and hopes. At the end, we all melded so perfectly, because we all were looking for something in common, to go back to nature and give it the respect and attention it deserves.
Costa Rica and Panama were the last pieces of a landmass, which put the closure stone to one of the most important and dramatic land bridges on our planet. For over a hundred million years, South America drifted away from Africa, turning into a gigantic island with very particular flora and fauna. Monkeys with prehensile tails, armadillos 4 feet long, anteaters that climbed trees, porcupines, terror birds that could reach 9 ft tall, and three families of sloth, ranging from an elephant to a horse size.
North America from another side was partially isolated; every now and then ice bridges connect it with Asia, giving the chance for many species of mammals to enter a new continent. Bears, saber-toothed cats, wild pigs, camels, horses, weasels, and wild dogs, among other warm-blooded carnivores, moved as far down as Salvador and Nicaragua, which, during that time (16 million years ago), were a recently formed archipelago of volcanic islands. Panama and Costa Rica were still too spread apart from both continents to allow animals to swim across.
Finally by 2.4 million years ago, our two young countries closed the land bridge and witnessed the most dramatic biotic interchange. Sloth moved as far north as Alaska, camels vanished from North America but flourished in the south, warm blooded carnivores like cats, dogs and wild pigs filled out every single niche that the South American tropical rain forest opened for them. At the end, 50 percent of the mammal genera that we consider so tropical actually are descendents from North American families, and just three species of animals from the south are the only survivors from the south, the Virginia opossum, the Mexican porcupine and the nine-banded armadillo.
Today, for the last day of our trip, we visited one of the most paradisiacal place in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is that green emerald forest loaded with monkeys, sloth, blue butterflies, charming birds and calm turquoise waters. But today was monkey day; we could not ask for better close ups from white-faced monkeys chewing on anything and everything, as they drove away a troop of at least 30 red-backed squirrel monkeys that screamed as they moved away. Squirrel monkeys are particularly hard to find due to their very restricted geographical range. In Costa Rica, they are just found here and the Osa peninsula and western Panama, so to enjoy them and their behavior was the best way to end our trip.
As Costa Rica and Panama connected two great continents, this trip has given us the chance to know, talk about, enjoy and share wonderful moments with so many different people with very different knowledge, expectations, dreams and hopes. At the end, we all melded so perfectly, because we all were looking for something in common, to go back to nature and give it the respect and attention it deserves.
