Curu Wild Life Refuge & Tortuga Inland
Today we had our first full day in Costa Rica on board the Sea Voyager as well as our first encounter with what is one of the most threatened eco-systems in this tropical region: the tropical dry forest. This is a tropical forest that faces very marked seasons throughout the year: one known as the rainy season which will last about six months, and the other known as the dry season that will last another six months. During the dry season the forest gets very little rain and most of its trees will drop their leaves in order to save water.
The dry season is the reason this forest is almost gone from the planet. The drought conditions make it extremely easy to burn the forest for clearing the land for pasture or crops. This is causing the forest to disappear at a faster rate than any other tropical eco-system.
Today we saw the dry forest in its rainy season, and it was lush and green as you can imagine. Looking carefully however, you could see some of the differences between a tropical rain forest and tropical dry forest. For example, there are very few air plants and most of the trees are covered with thorns and spines on their bark to protect themselves against herbivores in the dry season.
On our walk this morning through the forest we also saw scarlet macaws, trogons, a crocodile, and caracaras. We also heard howler monkeys, but one of the most cooperative animals was this black iguana that you see in the picture basking on the post trying to warm up, and not at all disturbed by our presence.
For the afternoon the Captain repositioned the ship to a group of islands where we took some Zodiac cruises to look at brown pelicans and magnificent frigatebirds, while some others swam from the beach and stern of the ship.
Today we had our first full day in Costa Rica on board the Sea Voyager as well as our first encounter with what is one of the most threatened eco-systems in this tropical region: the tropical dry forest. This is a tropical forest that faces very marked seasons throughout the year: one known as the rainy season which will last about six months, and the other known as the dry season that will last another six months. During the dry season the forest gets very little rain and most of its trees will drop their leaves in order to save water.
The dry season is the reason this forest is almost gone from the planet. The drought conditions make it extremely easy to burn the forest for clearing the land for pasture or crops. This is causing the forest to disappear at a faster rate than any other tropical eco-system.
Today we saw the dry forest in its rainy season, and it was lush and green as you can imagine. Looking carefully however, you could see some of the differences between a tropical rain forest and tropical dry forest. For example, there are very few air plants and most of the trees are covered with thorns and spines on their bark to protect themselves against herbivores in the dry season.
On our walk this morning through the forest we also saw scarlet macaws, trogons, a crocodile, and caracaras. We also heard howler monkeys, but one of the most cooperative animals was this black iguana that you see in the picture basking on the post trying to warm up, and not at all disturbed by our presence.
For the afternoon the Captain repositioned the ship to a group of islands where we took some Zodiac cruises to look at brown pelicans and magnificent frigatebirds, while some others swam from the beach and stern of the ship.
