Manuel Antonio National Park & San Josecito Beach
Well today we had our first whole day on board the Sea Voyager, and what a day it was. It really couldn’t have been better, as we got to see a humpback whale, scarlet macaws, Central American agoutis, white-nosed coatis, three-toed sloths, white-throated capuchin monkeys, red-backed squirrel monkeys, and many other cool things. But let’s start from the beginning.
Today when we woke up in the morning, we were in Manuel Antonio National Park which is by far the smallest national park in Costa Rica, and at the same time one of the most popular to visit. This is for more than one reason: it is accessible by car, it has a beautiful beach surrounded by forest, and it is probably one of the best places to look for medium-sized mammals such as sloths, monkeys, agouties, and coatis. And today we experienced at least the last two reasons, because we not only enjoyed the beautiful beach, but on our early hikes one or the other of the groups got to see most of the wildlife mentioned! Even when having our swim at the beach we got to see a troop of white-throated capuchin monkeys right at our station on the beach. While we were taking their pictures, believe me, it was quite a scene.
This experience can happen here because the small size of the park makes it too small for big predators. It seems that the park has become a small green island on the mainland, not linked to any other forest nearby, so medium-sized mammals have gone through a population explosion which is the reason why it was so easy to see them today.
Well today we had our first whole day on board the Sea Voyager, and what a day it was. It really couldn’t have been better, as we got to see a humpback whale, scarlet macaws, Central American agoutis, white-nosed coatis, three-toed sloths, white-throated capuchin monkeys, red-backed squirrel monkeys, and many other cool things. But let’s start from the beginning.
Today when we woke up in the morning, we were in Manuel Antonio National Park which is by far the smallest national park in Costa Rica, and at the same time one of the most popular to visit. This is for more than one reason: it is accessible by car, it has a beautiful beach surrounded by forest, and it is probably one of the best places to look for medium-sized mammals such as sloths, monkeys, agouties, and coatis. And today we experienced at least the last two reasons, because we not only enjoyed the beautiful beach, but on our early hikes one or the other of the groups got to see most of the wildlife mentioned! Even when having our swim at the beach we got to see a troop of white-throated capuchin monkeys right at our station on the beach. While we were taking their pictures, believe me, it was quite a scene.
This experience can happen here because the small size of the park makes it too small for big predators. It seems that the park has become a small green island on the mainland, not linked to any other forest nearby, so medium-sized mammals have gone through a population explosion which is the reason why it was so easy to see them today.
