Curu Wildlife Refuge and Tortuga Islet
Overnight the ship had repositioned to the northeast, and we awoke to the sight of the sun rising over the hilltops of small islands in the Gulf of Nicoya. We decided to start our exploration early in the morning when the tropical forest is more active. Our destination is the privately owned preserve of Curu, located at the eastern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. Despite its small size, it holds a great variety of habitats: dry tropical forest, mangrove forest, beach vegetation, and wetland. Its beach is home to thousands of ghost crabs, and its cup-shaped bay has gentle waters. A recent study rated Curu Wildlife Refuge as the ecologically richest reserve of the Nicoya Peninsula.
As we left the boat we could hear the roar of the howler monkeys, and a chorus of wild birds. Although we did see coati mundi, bats and basilisk lizards, perhaps the most expected animal and the one that every one wanted to find were the monkeys. One of our groups happened to find a troop of howler monkeys up on a tree, and just before we boarded the Zodiacs to head back to the ship, a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys were spotted very close to our beach-station.
We came back to the boat, and after a good lunch we went back ashore, but this time to an island right next to our morning destination: Tortuga Islet. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and kayaking from the beautiful white sand beach and its pristine blue waters. But still we wanted more adventures, so once we were all back aboard, the Sea Voyager set off in a northward direction while still with daylight, so we could all do some searching for marine life.
We did not have to wait long before someone yelled, “Dolphins at eleven o’clock from the bow!”
Overnight the ship had repositioned to the northeast, and we awoke to the sight of the sun rising over the hilltops of small islands in the Gulf of Nicoya. We decided to start our exploration early in the morning when the tropical forest is more active. Our destination is the privately owned preserve of Curu, located at the eastern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. Despite its small size, it holds a great variety of habitats: dry tropical forest, mangrove forest, beach vegetation, and wetland. Its beach is home to thousands of ghost crabs, and its cup-shaped bay has gentle waters. A recent study rated Curu Wildlife Refuge as the ecologically richest reserve of the Nicoya Peninsula.
As we left the boat we could hear the roar of the howler monkeys, and a chorus of wild birds. Although we did see coati mundi, bats and basilisk lizards, perhaps the most expected animal and the one that every one wanted to find were the monkeys. One of our groups happened to find a troop of howler monkeys up on a tree, and just before we boarded the Zodiacs to head back to the ship, a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys were spotted very close to our beach-station.
We came back to the boat, and after a good lunch we went back ashore, but this time to an island right next to our morning destination: Tortuga Islet. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and kayaking from the beautiful white sand beach and its pristine blue waters. But still we wanted more adventures, so once we were all back aboard, the Sea Voyager set off in a northward direction while still with daylight, so we could all do some searching for marine life.
We did not have to wait long before someone yelled, “Dolphins at eleven o’clock from the bow!”
