When it comes to spotting wildlife and learning about Costa Rica’s flora and fauna, our naturalist guides are awesome! With eagle-eyes and a spotting scope both the Punta Cathedral and the Sloth Valley walks had so many sightings.
First we learned to shy away from the poisonous manchineel trees (Hippomane mancinella) colloquially called ‘beach apple’ or manzanillo. They shade the beach yet their fruit and sap is caustic.
Costa Rica has 900 species of birds and some 320 of them are in Manual Antonio Park! We watched the yellow throated toucan, grey neck wood rail, lesser nighthawk and riverside wren. The “Jesus Christ lizard” was fun to observe because it walks on water very fast with its hind legs. The plentiful three-toed sloths were being ‘very slothy’ by moving so slowly. We watched agouti like rabbits, spiny tailed iguanas, and red eyed tree frogs all looking back at us. So interesting is the sleepy mimosa plant, the locals use herbs to relax and fall asleep and in the hot tropical jungle as you touch the leaves it actually closes up as if to sleep! We heard the howler monkeys making a racket and watched the playful white faced monkeys posing for pictures. A remarkable day, under the dense canopy, swimming, beach walking or back on the ship participating in yoga or therapeutic massage, the National Geographic Sea Lion granted us a beautiful day of exploration and appreciation.
