Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
Costa Rica is known for its coffee, its friendly people and its role in nature conservation. In the early seventies, the National Park System was created, since then many parks have been established. At first it was difficult for people to determine how large a national park should be in order for it to properly protect and ensure the health of a particular ecosystem. Now-a-days we know that if a piece of forest can cover different habitats and elevations, it will allow the flora and fauna to “move” in search of food and mates.
Today we anchored in front of a paradise called Manuel Antonio National Park; a place with turquoise waters, white sandy beaches and lush green forests. It is a wonderful location to combine leisure and wildlife. This park is one of the smallest in the country, covering a little over 1000 acres. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and oil palm plantations. Its position in the middle of the Pacific shoreline makes it a gathering point for two different tropical forests, the rainy one from the southwest and the dry one from the northwest. This characteristic allows for tall, fairly skinny, smooth bark trees from the rain forest and twisted, rough bark, round leaves trees from the dry forest, among many other plant adaptations to thrive.
From a wildlife perspective, we had the perfect close-up encounter with monkeys, deer, agoutis, coatis, raccoons, sloths, iguanas and different species of colorful birds. We found white-faced monkeys foraging every single inch of a tree, squirrel monkeys acting like acrobats from the Cirque du Soleil and howler monkeys frolicking in the branches.
For our last day, this outing was the perfect way to tie together everything from impressive forests and warm waters to new adventures and unforgettable memories.
Costa Rica is known for its coffee, its friendly people and its role in nature conservation. In the early seventies, the National Park System was created, since then many parks have been established. At first it was difficult for people to determine how large a national park should be in order for it to properly protect and ensure the health of a particular ecosystem. Now-a-days we know that if a piece of forest can cover different habitats and elevations, it will allow the flora and fauna to “move” in search of food and mates.
Today we anchored in front of a paradise called Manuel Antonio National Park; a place with turquoise waters, white sandy beaches and lush green forests. It is a wonderful location to combine leisure and wildlife. This park is one of the smallest in the country, covering a little over 1000 acres. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and oil palm plantations. Its position in the middle of the Pacific shoreline makes it a gathering point for two different tropical forests, the rainy one from the southwest and the dry one from the northwest. This characteristic allows for tall, fairly skinny, smooth bark trees from the rain forest and twisted, rough bark, round leaves trees from the dry forest, among many other plant adaptations to thrive.
From a wildlife perspective, we had the perfect close-up encounter with monkeys, deer, agoutis, coatis, raccoons, sloths, iguanas and different species of colorful birds. We found white-faced monkeys foraging every single inch of a tree, squirrel monkeys acting like acrobats from the Cirque du Soleil and howler monkeys frolicking in the branches.
For our last day, this outing was the perfect way to tie together everything from impressive forests and warm waters to new adventures and unforgettable memories.
