Estacion Sirena, Corcovado National Park
Today we woke up with a question in our mind, “could we do it?” Yesterday our Expedition Leader Ged Caddick had presented to us the possibility of going to a new place, a place never before visited by Lindblad guests, indeed, this area is hardly ever reached by any tourist. Because of its isolation this area of the park can only be reached by land in a 6-hour walk, or by air (hiring a private airplane), or by boat when the ocean permits. Today the ocean was calm enough so that we could manage to make a safe landing. Right at the landing spot we began to see the fruits of our effort, across from the bank of the river where we landed, the first arriving guests got to see a 7 foot crocodile, and a few minutes later a white-faced capuchin monkey arrived at the beach.
Later, in our hike through the park we spotted several different species of birds, spider monkeys and howler monkeys, but between some of these sightings was a tree that generated more pictures – a 30 foot wide strangler fig tree. Fig trees are common in the tropical rain forest, but one this size is not easy to find, they are only in a pristine primary forest like the one we were visiting. The fig trees play a mayor role in the forest since they are a source of food for a variety of animals like monkeys, toucans, bats, iguanas and many others. Costa Rica has 33 species of native fig trees, some of those are strangler figs, so called for they behavior of starting as a small tree in the canopy of a “host” tree, where the seed was left in a dropping from one of the fig eating animals. The fig tree will develop roots that will completely surround the host tree, and the canopy of the fig will cover the canopy of the host, until the host tree eventually dies by this process of strangulation. The strangler fig will take the place of the host tree in the forest. This is a strategy to compete for sunlight, which is the limiting factor for many plants in the rain forest. Although the animals of this forest are very attractive, trees such as the figs are features hard to pass by, and definitely hard to forget.
Today we woke up with a question in our mind, “could we do it?” Yesterday our Expedition Leader Ged Caddick had presented to us the possibility of going to a new place, a place never before visited by Lindblad guests, indeed, this area is hardly ever reached by any tourist. Because of its isolation this area of the park can only be reached by land in a 6-hour walk, or by air (hiring a private airplane), or by boat when the ocean permits. Today the ocean was calm enough so that we could manage to make a safe landing. Right at the landing spot we began to see the fruits of our effort, across from the bank of the river where we landed, the first arriving guests got to see a 7 foot crocodile, and a few minutes later a white-faced capuchin monkey arrived at the beach.
Later, in our hike through the park we spotted several different species of birds, spider monkeys and howler monkeys, but between some of these sightings was a tree that generated more pictures – a 30 foot wide strangler fig tree. Fig trees are common in the tropical rain forest, but one this size is not easy to find, they are only in a pristine primary forest like the one we were visiting. The fig trees play a mayor role in the forest since they are a source of food for a variety of animals like monkeys, toucans, bats, iguanas and many others. Costa Rica has 33 species of native fig trees, some of those are strangler figs, so called for they behavior of starting as a small tree in the canopy of a “host” tree, where the seed was left in a dropping from one of the fig eating animals. The fig tree will develop roots that will completely surround the host tree, and the canopy of the fig will cover the canopy of the host, until the host tree eventually dies by this process of strangulation. The strangler fig will take the place of the host tree in the forest. This is a strategy to compete for sunlight, which is the limiting factor for many plants in the rain forest. Although the animals of this forest are very attractive, trees such as the figs are features hard to pass by, and definitely hard to forget.
