Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Today we visited one of Costa Rica’s five active volcanoes, Rincón de la Vieja, translating literally to the “Old Hag’s Corner”. We have changed gears today and are leaving our faithful ship for another means of transportation. Motor coaches will take us up the mountains towards the base of this stratovolcano. We can choose to do two things, horseback riding with a short walk towards the mud pots or a longer forest loop walk which will end at the mud pots too. As we all headed towards our morning choices, the arid crater watched us from above like a colossal guardian.

Our morning proved to be very productive to all of us. The horses were very tame and walked us through the trails allowing us to take in the view and even do a little bird watching. Nevertheless, those of us who took either walk, were rewarded with near encounters of white-throated capuchin monkeys. The social organization of capuchins in Costa Rica has been studied by many researchers in various sites of the area. The females usually stay in their groups, while males disperse. This pattern is common among Old World monkeys, but in the New World it has been observed only in capuchins and another South American species. Animals that exhibit this pattern are sometimes termed female-bonded because they tend to hang out together and form close ties. On the other hand, males do not tend to form bonds, but are less antagonistic than the males of other capuchin species in the South American region. We had the chance to walk under a feeding troop of at least 12 individuals and watch them watch us as we emerged from the forest into the open area around the park ranger’s station.

We had lunch at a local hotel, took a cooling dip in the pool and were ready to come back home. As we watched the sun set producing an array of pink, red and orange colors, we toasted the day away with a great cocktail hour up on the sundeck.