Manuel Antonio National Park and Curu Wildlife Refuge
What a nice way to start the day, by waking up and seeing the gorgeous beach and forest of Manuel Antonio from our ship. Manuel Antonio National Park is the smallest park of the Costa Rican national park service, and is easily one of the most beautiful, due to its extraordinary beaches and rain forest, the home of many animals. Just on our early morning walks, the two kinds of sloths found in Costa Rica were spotted: the brown-throated three-toed sloth and the Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth. On the way back to the beach, we had a nice surprise when we found a troop of white-throated capuchin monkeys jumping all over the place.
After Manuel Antonio we spent five hours cruising north, and many manta rays were spotted. We then dropped anchor in front of our next destination: the tropical dry forest of Curu Wildlife Refuge.
The Curu refuge has a deserted-island kind of feeling, maybe due to the coconut-strewn beach, or the mangrove swamp, or the forest covered hills rising at the end of the bay. Walking through the forest behind the palm-fringed beach, you sense the wilderness of the place. We came ashore on one of the sandy beaches of the refuge, and the horizon is the mainland.
We went walking and exploring the network of trails, some of them going through the working farm, and others through the deciduous tropical dry forest. The refuge comprises 5 percent of the farm’s 3,700 acres, of which 75 percent is forest and 20 percent is agricultural and cattle productions. We saw many new species including the Rufous-naped wren that builds its nest in the thorn tree that is infested with ants. Many more resident birds of this tropical dry forest were spotted, and among them some of the North American migratory birds that had already started the spring migration back to North America, including the Baltimore oriole and northern waterthrush. Can there be anything that will even come close to this experience?
What a nice way to start the day, by waking up and seeing the gorgeous beach and forest of Manuel Antonio from our ship. Manuel Antonio National Park is the smallest park of the Costa Rican national park service, and is easily one of the most beautiful, due to its extraordinary beaches and rain forest, the home of many animals. Just on our early morning walks, the two kinds of sloths found in Costa Rica were spotted: the brown-throated three-toed sloth and the Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth. On the way back to the beach, we had a nice surprise when we found a troop of white-throated capuchin monkeys jumping all over the place.
After Manuel Antonio we spent five hours cruising north, and many manta rays were spotted. We then dropped anchor in front of our next destination: the tropical dry forest of Curu Wildlife Refuge.
The Curu refuge has a deserted-island kind of feeling, maybe due to the coconut-strewn beach, or the mangrove swamp, or the forest covered hills rising at the end of the bay. Walking through the forest behind the palm-fringed beach, you sense the wilderness of the place. We came ashore on one of the sandy beaches of the refuge, and the horizon is the mainland.
We went walking and exploring the network of trails, some of them going through the working farm, and others through the deciduous tropical dry forest. The refuge comprises 5 percent of the farm’s 3,700 acres, of which 75 percent is forest and 20 percent is agricultural and cattle productions. We saw many new species including the Rufous-naped wren that builds its nest in the thorn tree that is infested with ants. Many more resident birds of this tropical dry forest were spotted, and among them some of the North American migratory birds that had already started the spring migration back to North America, including the Baltimore oriole and northern waterthrush. Can there be anything that will even come close to this experience?
