Manuel Antonio National Park & Curu Biological Reserve
We awoke for an early breakfast so that we could be the first ones to enter the Manuel Antonio National Park to explore the marvels of this jewel of Costa Rica’s National Parks. This island in the mainland offered us the opportunity to spot wildlife while we hiked the different trails as well as enjoy a relaxing swim on its white sandy beaches. As a warning of what the day was about to offer, an osprey flew in front of our group and caught a fish as the cameras started to shoot pictures to warm up. Then we started our journey and everyone came across three-toed sloths, white-throated capuchin monkeys, a white-nosed coati and howler monkeys, not to mention the black spiny-tailed ctenosaurs, which gave us a whole display as if they were required to pose for the Photo Expedition. After exploring this amazing exotic terrain, we returned to the beach to relax and swim in the warm, tropical water. There was a choice of walking some 30 feet to gain access to either one of the two nearby beaches. A natural bridge that connected an ancient island to the mainland to create a geological landscape known as a tombolo was the division between these two beaches. Then we got back on the ship in order to change scenery to visit a completely different ecosystem.
On our way to the Gulf of Nicoya we were able to better understand the Central American culture, thanks to a great lecture given by our historian Julio Fernande. Upon arrival to Curu we discovered that, in a short distance, the vegetation changed and placed us in one of the last remnants of tropical dry forest on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. During our walks here, howler monkeys (today’s photo), capuchin monkeys, scarlet macaws, mangrove hawks, rufous and white wrens, crested caracaras and squirrel cuckoos, among many other birds, came to bid us farewell, inviting us to come back to this paradise of nature well-represented by the beauty of Costa Rica and Panama.
We awoke for an early breakfast so that we could be the first ones to enter the Manuel Antonio National Park to explore the marvels of this jewel of Costa Rica’s National Parks. This island in the mainland offered us the opportunity to spot wildlife while we hiked the different trails as well as enjoy a relaxing swim on its white sandy beaches. As a warning of what the day was about to offer, an osprey flew in front of our group and caught a fish as the cameras started to shoot pictures to warm up. Then we started our journey and everyone came across three-toed sloths, white-throated capuchin monkeys, a white-nosed coati and howler monkeys, not to mention the black spiny-tailed ctenosaurs, which gave us a whole display as if they were required to pose for the Photo Expedition. After exploring this amazing exotic terrain, we returned to the beach to relax and swim in the warm, tropical water. There was a choice of walking some 30 feet to gain access to either one of the two nearby beaches. A natural bridge that connected an ancient island to the mainland to create a geological landscape known as a tombolo was the division between these two beaches. Then we got back on the ship in order to change scenery to visit a completely different ecosystem.
On our way to the Gulf of Nicoya we were able to better understand the Central American culture, thanks to a great lecture given by our historian Julio Fernande. Upon arrival to Curu we discovered that, in a short distance, the vegetation changed and placed us in one of the last remnants of tropical dry forest on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. During our walks here, howler monkeys (today’s photo), capuchin monkeys, scarlet macaws, mangrove hawks, rufous and white wrens, crested caracaras and squirrel cuckoos, among many other birds, came to bid us farewell, inviting us to come back to this paradise of nature well-represented by the beauty of Costa Rica and Panama.
