Welcome back, National Geographic Sea Lion, to southern Central America! This week is the beginning of our 2015-2016 season and last night, we sailed around 55 nautical miles from Herradura Bay in order to reach the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica.
Our day started in one of our most beautiful protected areas of Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio National Park. Within only 1,983 hectares or 4,900 acres, primary and secondary tropical wet forests merge with pristine islands, coves and beaches, providing a unique landscape for our enjoyment. As soon as the park opened, all of our guests were prepared to walk the system of trails at Cathedral Point and sloth valley.
Most of us spent the morning walking the trails and catching special sights, the highlights of the day were seeing Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths and brown-throated three-toed sloths. The white throated capuchin monkeys and Central American squirrel monkeys provided great energetic interactions among them.
After lunch back on board, many guests were eager to enjoy the placid, warm waters of Playa Espadilla Sur, inside the national park. We set up our beach station under the natural shade provided by almond trees and palm fronds; it was the perfect setting to relax our mind and soul with the sublime tropical greenery surrounding us.
By late afternoon, our naturalist and biologist Isabel Salas commemorated the International Day of Primates this past week by providing a very insightful talk about them in the lounge. A dramatic sunset ended our first full day along with dinner and recaps while sailing south to Osa Peninsula.
