Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Today, the second day of our voyage, began with a tropical shower. What would a rainforest be without the climatic factor that gives it its name? We moved from our anchorage site inside Drake Bay, where fish-eating bats visited us during the night, and headed out onto the most pristine piece of forest in the Mesoamerican area. With beautiful beaches draped with evergreen forests, this park is every nature-lover’s dream. Some of us chose the longer walks, others chose the short waterfall walk, and even the stationary walk had takers. The waterhole is a refreshing pool where all could cool down from a steamy walk. Whatever walk we took, we all got glimpses of great wildlife: white throated capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, agoutis, coatis, lizards, crocodiles, macaws, but nothing compares to the incredible luck two groups had of spotting white-lipped peccaries! After nine years in the field one of our naturalists has yet to see one, and today at least one dozen first-timers-in-the-field saw what has by now become forty of them!

We repositioned towards our lunch site. Playa Caletas is a privately owned small cove not too far from Corcovado National Park. Enrique, its owner, has set up picnic tables where our fantastic crew prepared a delicious BBQ lunch of hamburgers, veggie burgers, BBQ ribs, salad, corn in the cob, fruit and brownies. We all had our share of food, and even the white-throated capuchin monkeys had their share of our food.

Back on board for showers, recap and a traditional Costa Rican dinner, after a very active and outdoorsy day, we were all ready for an early night’s sleep.