We awoke today peacefully anchored inside of Drake Bay, in the southwest of Costa Rica, just a mere 20 nautical miles from Corcovado National Park. After breakfast National Geographic Sea Lion lifted anchor and repositioned to the nearby buffer zone of Corcovado at Caletas Point. At Caletas we were received by the owner of this lovely pristine remote place, who everyone in this area simply calls “Ban Ban,” born in Costa Rica from a Costa Rican mother and a father from Belgium who gave him an impossible name to pronounce.
Our walks today in Caletas were just great; some of us ventured inside the forest to experience its pristine dense vegetation, and others stayed outside on the forest’s edge to look for colorful birds to photograph. Sure enough, soon after we started to walk slowly around the property we found chestnut-mandible toucans jumping high through the canopy, one of the iconic birds of the new world tropics. Later we had great views of common black hawks, and during our picnic lunch by the beach a group of scarlet macaws noisily landed on a nearby tree, where they were the delight of our photographers, and where they hung around long enough to make sure everyone got a good photo of them.
In the afternoon National Geographic Sea Lion repositioned to the national park itself, anchoring just in front of the park ranger station of San Pedrillo, Corcovado. After landing on the beach, our guests walked in two different directions, some to the flatter Rio Claro trail and others to the more difficult San Pedrillo waterfall. The walks were very successful today because aside from enjoying the views of the forest, the river and the waterfall itself, we had the opportunity to have a refreshing dip into the river’s waters to cool down. Later we were also rewarded with sights of unusual animals like the very vocal howler monkeys, the odd looking tamandua anteaters and the acrobatic spider monkeys, truly the kind of creatures that you have to look for in a pristine and remote place such as Corcovado.
And for a perfect ending, later in the evening and after a great dinner we had a pleasant surprise when some local musicians came on board to play Latin American music. So all in all it was a great day here at Caletas and Corcovado, and tomorrow we’ll go even farther south in Costa Rica, for our last day in this beautiful country before continuing to Panama and the Panama Canal.
