Manuel Antonio National Park & Osa Penisula, Costa Rica
This was our first day of the trip and what a day we had! Beginning right after breakfast, we had the morning to explore the famous Manuel Antonio National Park, which is the smallest park of the national park system of Costa Rica. However, at the same time, it is one of the most visited, both by tourists and by locals, perhaps because it is so close to the capital of the country, but also perhaps because it has some of the most beautiful white beaches you will ever see, surrounded by a beautiful lush green tropical moist forest. In addition, if that were not enough, it is one of the best places to see wildlife such as monkeys, sloth, agouties, coatis and others. Today we are living proof of that because after only a short time on the trails, we got to see sloth, howler monkeys, red-backed squirrel monkeys, white-throated capuchin monkeys, and many other things.
It was truly a magical morning, and the reason why we saw so much is because the park is not big enough to maintain big predators such as jaguars, big eagles, and pumas that would keep under control the population of the medium sized animals, so in the absence of their predators, the medium sized animals undergo a demographic explosion.
After our morning in the park we lifted anchor and started our journey to the Osa Penisula, only to have a brief interruption on our way by a humpback whale that, after a couple of blows and wave of its flukes, let us reassume our sail. After anchoring near the Osa Penisula we headed out in Zodiacs and kayaks the explore the Rio Agujitas for a swim and some more looks at monkeys, iguanas, herons and a nice Zodiac afternoon cruise. As I already said, what a day we had!
This was our first day of the trip and what a day we had! Beginning right after breakfast, we had the morning to explore the famous Manuel Antonio National Park, which is the smallest park of the national park system of Costa Rica. However, at the same time, it is one of the most visited, both by tourists and by locals, perhaps because it is so close to the capital of the country, but also perhaps because it has some of the most beautiful white beaches you will ever see, surrounded by a beautiful lush green tropical moist forest. In addition, if that were not enough, it is one of the best places to see wildlife such as monkeys, sloth, agouties, coatis and others. Today we are living proof of that because after only a short time on the trails, we got to see sloth, howler monkeys, red-backed squirrel monkeys, white-throated capuchin monkeys, and many other things.
It was truly a magical morning, and the reason why we saw so much is because the park is not big enough to maintain big predators such as jaguars, big eagles, and pumas that would keep under control the population of the medium sized animals, so in the absence of their predators, the medium sized animals undergo a demographic explosion.
After our morning in the park we lifted anchor and started our journey to the Osa Penisula, only to have a brief interruption on our way by a humpback whale that, after a couple of blows and wave of its flukes, let us reassume our sail. After anchoring near the Osa Penisula we headed out in Zodiacs and kayaks the explore the Rio Agujitas for a swim and some more looks at monkeys, iguanas, herons and a nice Zodiac afternoon cruise. As I already said, what a day we had!
