This morning, National Geographic Sea Lion visited Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the jewels in the Costa Rica network of protected rainforest. Our guests went ashore in our expedition landing craft, the low tide was ideal for everyone to experience a smooth arrival.
Once everyone made it to the station, a troop of white-throated capuchins monkeys showed up to give us a great welcoming into the park. They were moving so graciously along the shoreline, on their way to forage in the deep forest. It was so nice to see them at the very beginning of our hikes.
Hikers could choose from a shorter or longer exploration and enjoyed the fantastic sightings of wildlife. This was easy because of the dense population of mammals for the size of this national park, making it a good place to see wildlife. Among the species found by our naturalist were black iguanas, Hoffman two-toed sloths, brown-throated three-toed sloths and mantled howler monkeys.
After the morning hike, we returned to the ship and made our way to the Osa Peninsula. To our surprise, we spotted a pod of false killer whales that showed up and bow ride for a little while, giving us pleasant moments of entertainment as we watched them. The false killer whales can inhabit in all temperate and tropical oceans and seas of the world.
We got to Drake Bay and deployed our expedition landing crafts to explore Agujitas River. Two rounds of cruises were offered giving our guests the opportunity to see more wildlife. Howler monkeys roaring and clinging from tree to tree along with spider monkeys were spotted for first time this trip. Black mandible toucans and a flock of great crassow were also seen in the river edge.
After the expedition landing craft ride our guests enjoyed a session of recaps in what was a great beginning in this voyage.
