Manuel Antonio National Park & Osa Peninsula
It is the first day of our international cruise, beginning in Costa Rica and ending in Panama a week from now. We are excited since today we will be exploring one of the most appreciated national parks of Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio. It has many obvious attractions: beautiful forest-backed tropical beaches, rocky headlands with ocean and islands views, prolific wildlife and a clearly marked trail system. This makes it one of the most popular parks in Costa Rica.
After coming ashore and walking several different trails, we began to realize why this park is so well known with its beautiful forest and ample wildlife. We saw many Black-bellied Whistling ducks, maybe a hundred of them, in a couple of trees. A bit farther down the trail we saw a Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth in a nearby tree. A hundred meters farther we encountered a troop of Howler monkeys traveling through the forest, and “just around the corner” we founded a Two-toed Sloth climbing up a tree. Among the other wildlife spotted were: Brown-basilisk reptiles, green iguanas as well as a spiny-tailed iguana, and a toucan that we all were hoping to find. Tropical trees were in bloom, and pink and red blossoms were all over the place.
After the walk we headed back to the beach to enjoy the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean down here on the tropics. The beach here is beautiful, with its spectacular rain forest backing.
We spend the rest of the afternoon cruising south toward the Osa Peninsula and searching for marine life. Aboard National Geographic Sea Lion, the first of a series of lectures was presented by the naturalist staff, named the “Past, Present and Future of Costa Rica.” We ended the day enjoying a nice sunset, follow by recap time.
We all agree that it couldn’t have been a better way to begin our cruise in Costa Rica.
