Corcovado National Park & Caletas Beach
Few places in Costa Rica would mean so much as an icon of conservation as Corcovado National Park. Its foundation goes back to 1975 but still today its protection has a lot to do with campaigns of environmental bio-alphabetization not only of the local people but foreigners that are moving to the area.
Because gold was found within this area in the early 70s, there was a lot of interest in using the territory of Corcovado in a completely different way. Its declaration as a national park involved lots of protest country wide and later in the mid 80s the unemployment in the region brought a great number of “oreros,” gold panners that became a true menace to the park.
The situation was solved after the government negotiated with gold panners promising land to farm and a monetary indemnity.
This morning our visit to the park started at San Pedrillo station; while some people decided to explore the trails to the waterfall, others walked along the pargo trail.
Common black hawks, great curassows, scarlet macaws, American crocodiles and other beautiful animals where part of the wildlife enjoyed along the side. At the end of our exploration, and under a fantastic sky, we came back to the Sea Voyager and continued our voyage towards Caletas beach. Once there all the explorers disembarked to enjoy a delicious barbecue.
White face capuchins, mantle Howler monkeys, chestnut mandible toucans, and coati mundis were some of the animals we saw while walking or horseback riding in this area. Of course there was also plenty of time to simply relax at the beach with the comfortable ocean breeze
The end of this fantastic day was crowned by a beautiful sunset behind Caño Island just after our last long walker’s group arrived from Drake Bay.
The great biodiversity and its inaccessibility make this pristine place the home of many amazing species.
To view video footage from today's expedition cruise, click here.
