Manuel Antonio National Park
Another amazing national park welcomed us on our last expedition day. Manuel Antonio National Park is a protected area on the central Pacific side of Costa Rica that has become one of the most popular places in the country because of the amount of wildlife that people can see even when swimming.
We spent a full day at this park which gave us the opportunity to do more than one trail and even a visit to the town to get a taste of Costa Rica.
In the morning just when the first hikers arrived to disembark at the park, our Zodiac drivers had already showed them the first three toed sloth and right at the beach a white nosed coati was around. Some of us took the hike up to Cathedral Point, a spectacular trail that explores an ancient island which has been joined to the mainland by the interaction of marine currents and deposit of sediments, That formation in geomorphology is known as a Tombolo. We hiked up to a lookout point that is facing some islets that work as a habitat for nesting birds and on our way there, several agoutis were active searching for food and at the same time playing their roll as seed dispersers.
The second option was a walk through the park to reach the sloth valley. Off course the three and two toed sloths performed for us. Sloths have a very slow metabolism due to a diet based on leaves which are hard to digest by mammals. White tailed deers, fiery billed aracari toucans, crab eating raccoons, howler monkeys, the omnivorous ctenosaur iguanas and a beautiful spectacled caymans were captured by our camera lenses as witnesses of the diversity of Manuel Antonio National Park.
Our Panama Costa Rica Expedition could not have a better end. Hasta pronto!
Another amazing national park welcomed us on our last expedition day. Manuel Antonio National Park is a protected area on the central Pacific side of Costa Rica that has become one of the most popular places in the country because of the amount of wildlife that people can see even when swimming.
We spent a full day at this park which gave us the opportunity to do more than one trail and even a visit to the town to get a taste of Costa Rica.
In the morning just when the first hikers arrived to disembark at the park, our Zodiac drivers had already showed them the first three toed sloth and right at the beach a white nosed coati was around. Some of us took the hike up to Cathedral Point, a spectacular trail that explores an ancient island which has been joined to the mainland by the interaction of marine currents and deposit of sediments, That formation in geomorphology is known as a Tombolo. We hiked up to a lookout point that is facing some islets that work as a habitat for nesting birds and on our way there, several agoutis were active searching for food and at the same time playing their roll as seed dispersers.
The second option was a walk through the park to reach the sloth valley. Off course the three and two toed sloths performed for us. Sloths have a very slow metabolism due to a diet based on leaves which are hard to digest by mammals. White tailed deers, fiery billed aracari toucans, crab eating raccoons, howler monkeys, the omnivorous ctenosaur iguanas and a beautiful spectacled caymans were captured by our camera lenses as witnesses of the diversity of Manuel Antonio National Park.
Our Panama Costa Rica Expedition could not have a better end. Hasta pronto!
