Curu Wildlife Refuge and Tortuga Island Costa Rica
Our first day found us anchoring just outside the beach of Curu Wildlife Refuge. This small 70-hectare (175 acres) is at the eastern end of the Peninsula of Nicoya. Even though this refuge is so small, it holds a great variety of habitats, there are semi-deciduous forests, mangrove estuaries, beaches fringed by coconut palms, and rocky headlands. We disembarked this morning onto the dark sand beaches of this place to follow our naturalists on two different walking options. Some of us decided to walk the longer forest trail only to be rewarded with sightings of praying mantis, cycada molts and adults, a phenomenal swarm of army ants, Golden orb spiders, many other species of insects and various species of mammals. The other option for this morning was a slightly shorter walk on a dirt road looking for wildlife, several species of birds, two species of monkeys ( white-throated capuchins and howler monkeys ), coatis, squirrels, and much more welcomed us in to their realm.
After our early walks, we went back to the ship for lunch as our Captain repositioned the Sea Voyager towards our second spot of the day: Tortuga Island. This is a site favored by the Costa Ricans because of its long, hermit crab-filled white-sand beach. We left our home for the week to enjoy this beach’s activities such as swimming, beach soccer and volleyball games, combing the coastline for coral and shells to make a display on the sand, or simply beach bumming on chairs or the sand. We saw large groups of frigatebirds and brown pelicans chasing after some fishing boats trying to catch a free meal, and a few black vultures soaring above us – we hate to think what that meant.
Back on board we all went to bed happy with our first day and wondering what the next few days will offer us.
Our first day found us anchoring just outside the beach of Curu Wildlife Refuge. This small 70-hectare (175 acres) is at the eastern end of the Peninsula of Nicoya. Even though this refuge is so small, it holds a great variety of habitats, there are semi-deciduous forests, mangrove estuaries, beaches fringed by coconut palms, and rocky headlands. We disembarked this morning onto the dark sand beaches of this place to follow our naturalists on two different walking options. Some of us decided to walk the longer forest trail only to be rewarded with sightings of praying mantis, cycada molts and adults, a phenomenal swarm of army ants, Golden orb spiders, many other species of insects and various species of mammals. The other option for this morning was a slightly shorter walk on a dirt road looking for wildlife, several species of birds, two species of monkeys ( white-throated capuchins and howler monkeys ), coatis, squirrels, and much more welcomed us in to their realm.
After our early walks, we went back to the ship for lunch as our Captain repositioned the Sea Voyager towards our second spot of the day: Tortuga Island. This is a site favored by the Costa Ricans because of its long, hermit crab-filled white-sand beach. We left our home for the week to enjoy this beach’s activities such as swimming, beach soccer and volleyball games, combing the coastline for coral and shells to make a display on the sand, or simply beach bumming on chairs or the sand. We saw large groups of frigatebirds and brown pelicans chasing after some fishing boats trying to catch a free meal, and a few black vultures soaring above us – we hate to think what that meant.
Back on board we all went to bed happy with our first day and wondering what the next few days will offer us.
