Manuel Antonio National Park
This morning we woke up, outside of Espadilla, the southern shoreline section of the Manuel Antonio national park. A wonderful sunrise welcomed us to our last exploration in Costa Rica. The Manuel Antonio National Park is a small biological oasis; this wilderness area was established on 1972. The park encompasses 1,983 hectares of land mass and 55,000 hectares of marine reserve. Its location as a humid tropical forest life zone makes it unique in the central Pacific.
At eight o´ clock, our first transfers by Zodiac arrived with the long walkers heading to punta serrucho and sloth valley. Once in the trail, our first observations included a ctenosaura iguana and a majestic roadside hawk that posed for all the photographers on one branch from a giant cenizaro tree.
After walking in the sloth valley we found a group of howler monkeys. We noticed some unusual in their behavior. The troop tried to separate one of the males from the group, but not only that happened; the drama was such, that when we were enjoying the howling, a female of the group, kidnapped a baby from his mother. Then both monkeys began to fight for the baby. In the middle of this drama a three-toed sloth appeared, trying to get away from these noisy animals.
After this show, we found a common pauraque nesting on the ground, certainly one of the birds with the best camouflage! In addition to this, a colorful group of fiery-billed Aracari, were flying back to their nest.
On the way back to the beach, we saw a troop of capuchin monkeys foraging in the premises of the picnic tables. Finally, we finished our journey in the national park with a swimming opportunity in the refreshing waters of the Pacific, for our last time during this trip.
In the evening we started our navigation to our last stop in Herradura with a fantastic week in Panama and Costa Rica.
