After a very peaceful night’s sleep anchored at the remote Drakes Bay on the southwest coast of Costa Rica, some of us chose to wake up very early this morning to visit the Agujitas River by boat before breakfast. As the sun started to peek up behind the distant mountains we ventured into this pristine small river, and as we watched how the first golden sunrays started to hit the rainforest treetops we observed some of the dynamics of the forest’s inhabitants.
Birds of the twilight were going to bed in the foliage, such as the yellow-crowned night herons, while daylight birds such as the little blue herons woke up from a night’s sleep hungry and actively looking for a meal. We were hungry too, and after our return and hearty breakfast in our home onboard National Geographic Sea Lion, we repositioned to Caletas Point for some walks inside the forest. At Caletas we had a delicious picnic lunch laboriously brought to us by the galley directly from our ship’s kitchen.
For the afternoon we repositioned yet again to visit the San Pedrillo sector of the vast and famous Corcovado National Park. Once at Corcovado we enjoyed some more walks in this incredible diverse ecosystem.
So today we had the opportunity to intimately explore the Corcovado National Park tropical forest and adjacent buffer zone by boat, horseback and walking, and during our explorations today we had the opportunity to learn about its complexity and beauty. Some of the interesting things we ran into today were leafcutter and army ants, colorful toucans and scarlet macaws, active white faced monkeys, and some of the elusive, discrete species that are unique to this particular area such as the endemic black-cheeked ant-tanager, only found here and nowhere else in the world.
We had a great day at the magnificent Corcovado National Park.
