The weather forecast predicted a rainy day on the central Pacific area in Costa Rica. Certainly, as the sun was rising over Talamanca mountain range, beautiful clouds with orange hues appeared in front of National Geographic Sea Lion. Nonetheless, the rain never showed up and the overcast conditions kept a wonderful temperature for our day’s events in Manuel Antonio national park.
This protected area is a precious gem in our system of national parks with light colored sand beaches, thick lush vegetation and unique rocky formations such as Punta Catedral. Actually, Punta Catedral was one of the main hikes our guests decided to participate. Max Vindas and Fico Chacon were the leaders of this adventure reaching a considerable elevation of approximately 140 meters or 460 feet above sea level.
Our second alternative was to discover a flatter section in the park called the sloth valley trail. Today indeed, not only three and two toed sloths were active and visible; but, white-throated capuchin monkeys were also actors in our observations this day. Crab eating raccoons, Central American agoutis, spiny-tailed iguanas were also part of these encounters, fulfilling our expectations to discover the wildlife of this ecosystem.
On the afternoon the medium to low tide condition on Playa Espadilla Sur at the park was really inviting to enjoy water activities. Therefore, a substantial amount of us returned to the beach for an invigorating momentum enjoying the warm tropical waters of this paradise.
By late afternoon as we repositioned our ship heading to Osa Peninsula, a memorable sunset in addition to our recap session and a talk about the history of Costa Rica concluded a special day exploring the southern isthmus of Central America.
