Corcovado National Park & Caletas Beach
Early in the morning, the Sea Voyager anchored in front of San Pedrillo Station. This station is part of Corcovado National Park, an important sanctuary of biological diversity and endangered wildlife. This park has an area of 110,000 acres and was founded in 1975. Many scientists have come to the park to do different research about the vast biodiversity of it. One of Corcovado’s blessings is its inaccessibility making possible its visit only by boat, hiking or chartering a small aircraft. This park is as well the site of many of Costa Rica’s most significant environmental conflicts.
Besides of its ecological wealth, the area has an interesting human history. There was a time when the place was inhabited by “oreros,” gold panners. These people would camp and look for gold all along the river banks and would hunt wild animals to eat. But in the mid-1980s, due to the massive unemployment in the region, this oreros number grew so large their activity started causing real destruction to the pristine forest. In 1986, the park service and the Costa Rican Civil Guard physically removed all the gold panners, promising them as indemnity for their lost jobs.
Right after breakfast we grabbed our gear and went to explore the premises of San Pedrillo Station. Some went to hike along a lovely trail that bordered the beach and others decided to hike through one of the trails behind the station. This trails leads to a spectacular waterfall and the reward was to take a swim in the little pool at the end of the trail. For our surprise, we realized that we were swimming close to a juvenile crocodile that was sunbathing up the little waterfall. Both walks gave us a little glimpse of the majestic biodiversity of the park.
Back on board, during our lunch, we weighed anchored and sailed to our next destination of the day, Caletas Beach. More hikes were offered and each of them proves to us the importance of protecting our forest and the wildlife that is connected to it. Some of the species that we enjoyed today were white face capuchins monkeys, northern tamandua, American crocodile, and different species of birds.
It had been just another wonderful day of our trip!
Early in the morning, the Sea Voyager anchored in front of San Pedrillo Station. This station is part of Corcovado National Park, an important sanctuary of biological diversity and endangered wildlife. This park has an area of 110,000 acres and was founded in 1975. Many scientists have come to the park to do different research about the vast biodiversity of it. One of Corcovado’s blessings is its inaccessibility making possible its visit only by boat, hiking or chartering a small aircraft. This park is as well the site of many of Costa Rica’s most significant environmental conflicts.
Besides of its ecological wealth, the area has an interesting human history. There was a time when the place was inhabited by “oreros,” gold panners. These people would camp and look for gold all along the river banks and would hunt wild animals to eat. But in the mid-1980s, due to the massive unemployment in the region, this oreros number grew so large their activity started causing real destruction to the pristine forest. In 1986, the park service and the Costa Rican Civil Guard physically removed all the gold panners, promising them as indemnity for their lost jobs.
Right after breakfast we grabbed our gear and went to explore the premises of San Pedrillo Station. Some went to hike along a lovely trail that bordered the beach and others decided to hike through one of the trails behind the station. This trails leads to a spectacular waterfall and the reward was to take a swim in the little pool at the end of the trail. For our surprise, we realized that we were swimming close to a juvenile crocodile that was sunbathing up the little waterfall. Both walks gave us a little glimpse of the majestic biodiversity of the park.
Back on board, during our lunch, we weighed anchored and sailed to our next destination of the day, Caletas Beach. More hikes were offered and each of them proves to us the importance of protecting our forest and the wildlife that is connected to it. Some of the species that we enjoyed today were white face capuchins monkeys, northern tamandua, American crocodile, and different species of birds.
It had been just another wonderful day of our trip!
