Las Caletas and Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica
Our second sunrise in Costa Rica, found us in front of Las Caletas, our first stop of the day. We headed out to land in order to enjoy a nice morning at this privately owned reserve which works as a buffer zone to the Corcovado National Park. The most adventurous, took a horseback ride along trails and coastline, all the way to Rio Claro, probably one of the most remote places where people get the opportunity to ride horses. Other guests enjoyed walks around the premises of the property, and a long walk up the mountain to get a sense of the wealth of this spectacular rain forest.
The area allowed us to find a diversity of birds such as white whiskered puffbird, great kiskadee, band tailed barbthroat, and Central American mantled howler monkeys. Even a fer-de-lance snake crossed the trail ignoring our presence, as if it was trying to prove that in Mother Nature, everything has a reason to be and if we respect it, it won’t act against us.
The afternoon activities got us immersed in the beauty of Corcovado National Park, a place declared by National Geographic as “the most biologically intense place on earth” in honor of the high diversity and endemism that it encompasses.
The activities included a flat trail walk parallel to the coast, in which people saw mammals like agoutis and three species of monkeys: howler, spider monkeys and white faced monkeys. The opportunity to see all three different species made it possible for our guests to compare them in their natural habitat. Something that most people in the world can only see in documentaries, such as the very different behaviors of each species, according to their diet and habits.
A hike up to a beautiful waterfall was another option, offering a refreshing swim in the middle of one of the most pristine forests in the world. This was the perfect reward to an up and down hike.
Here, we encountered both, fasciated and bare throated tiger herons, boat billed herons, several brown basilisks or Jesus Christ lizards, named that due to their ability to run up to 60 feet across the water to escape from predators. The elusive spider monkeys witnessed our river crossing on our way in and out, like they were making sure that we enjoyed their home without taking anything out of it but memories. They were pretty active and showed how agile they are when moving around, using their prehensile tail as an extra extremity, a capability they posses as their Latin name suggests. Their genus, Ateles, comes from a Greek root meaning incomplete, in reference to the fact that they lack a thumb.
We all returned happy to the San Pedrillo ranger station, where a white nosed coati was waiting to give us a farewell to our visit to Corcovado National Park.
It was a great day in a well worth visit to this sanctuary of life.
