Just last night we started our adventure sailing along the Pacific coast of Central America, from Costa Rica to and through the Panama Canal.
We woke up this morning as we dropped anchor at Manuel Antonio National Park, our destination for today. It felt magical, as the sun started rising behind the distant mountains and as the silhouettes of islands and the tall trees of the forest appeared through the pitch darkness of the night.
Manuel Antonio is the smallest national park of Costa Rica, created by sheer luck and the foresight of visionary people, who declared it a protected area just before it was hit by the rapid and aggressive hotel and real state development of this incredibly beautiful coastline.
After disembarkation we split into different directions, led by knowledgeable naturalist that almost magically found and pointed out to us some of the extremely well-camouflaged creatures that live here in the tropical rainforest.
Among some of the interesting and unique animals we saw today were three and two-toed sloths. Oddly enough, between both of them they make up 100% of the sloth species of the country (there are only six species in total in the world).
We also had a lot of fun observing and photographing active and friendly white-faced capuchin monkeys, which due to their high numbers, intelligence, and dexterity have developed techniques to steal food from the inattentive tourists that regularly visit this park.
After our walks we returned to ship for a delicious lunch and, in the afternoon after a siesta, returned to the park to enjoy a swim in warm waters and the breathtaking scenery of the beautiful pristine white sandy beaches of Manuel Antonio.
