Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
This morning, the dawn of the final full day of our exploration of Panama and Costa Rica, I wondered what we could do to make this memorable voyage even more amazing. I was a bit skeptical that we could match the experiences of the last week. I was sure wrong!
Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica’s smallest national park. Size isn’t everything. Landing on a magnificent sandy beach that would later be our base for swimming in the warm tropical Pacific, we took to looking for wildlife. We were well rewarded with great views of fiery-billed aricaris (small, spectacular toucan relatives), sloths, agoutis, raccoons, iguanas, basilisk lizards, a crocodile patrolling the bay and a host of other birds, reptiles and insects. On the beach were the remains of a green sea turtle nest, the inhabitants of which had hatched out last night and headed to sea.
Monkeys stole the show. Howlers, capuchins and squirrel monkeys were all in wonderfully close proximity. Feeding on fruits, seeds and insects, the squirrel monkeys were in constant motion. The howlers moved more deliberately. Finding an area of the forest canopy apparently to their liking, they settled in. After a few moments, the males made their resonating, roaring territorial calls. While sounding highly aggressive, the howlers are really gentle vegetarians. The capuchins were much like the squirrel monkeys. Always in motion, curious, stripping bark from trees in search of insects, leaping long distances between treetops. In short, as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.
After a refreshing swim, we returned to the National Geographic Sea Lion for lunch. Many of us returned to shore for the afternoon, either to Manuel Antonio, or to the small adjacent resort town.
This evening, we shared images from the week, with our National Geographic photographer, Chris Baker giving us some pointers about nature photography. A fine farewell dinner followed as we looked back on a memorable week of explorations.
