Corcovado National Park

Corcovado is one of "the most biologically intense places on earth", according to National Geographic. Its rain forest are by far the most exuberant in Central America. 500 different variety of trees grow here and up to 100 species can be found growing on just 2 acres of land.

The Park is home to Giant Anteaters, Tapirs, Sloths and a few big cat species, like the Jaguar, Ocelot, Pumas and Margay. Four species of Monkeys live in the trees overhead: the Howler, White-Faced Capuchin, Spider and Squirrel Monkey.

It also protects the largest population of Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica, plus its home to at least 375 other species of birds, 140 mammals, 116 of amphibians and reptiles, 40 types of fresh water fish. Plus 6000 - 10,000 different kinds of insects including 220 species of butterflies!

In amongst the trees of Corcovado we saw this Three-toed Sloth! This arboreal, (tree-living) mammal is only found in the tropical rain forests of South and Central America. The Sloth is nocturnal, it sleeps about 15 hours a day. Sloth

Sloths have thick brown and slightly greenish fur. The green is actually algae encrusting in their fur, to help camouflage the Sloth in its forest environment.They are roughly 2 feet long, weighing about 10 pounds. The Soth is a herbivore, enjoying leaves, tender young shoots, and fruit. They have nine vertebra, where most mammals have seven. This allows them to turn their heads 270 degrees! The Sloth descends to the ground once a week to defecate. It climbs down the trunk of a tree, digs a hole, does its business and covers it up before climbing back into the tree. This whole process takes nearly an hour because they move so slow. There are five species of Sloths, but only two species live in Costa Rica, the Three-toed Sloth and the Two-toed Sloth. Sloths live up to 40 years!
tree

A very spikey tree referred to as "Monkey No Climb Tree", for obvious reasons! Each spike is as sharp as a long needle.

We saw a group of Mantled Howler Monkeys enjoying life and eating tree leaves.

These are the loudest land animal, thus its name! The howls can be heard for several miles in the rain forest. We could hear them throughout the day. Only the males howl to communicate with other groups to defend their territories. These social primates live high in the canopy of the rain forests in troops averaging 10 to 20. Mostly they eat leaves, fruit and flowers. Their tails are very long and strong and used as a hand to hang on to tree. They can live 15-20 years, but typically their life span is 7-12 years. They are the largest new world monkeys weighing between 8 to 22 pounds.

coati

These cuties above are called White-nosed Coati. They are members of the raccoon family, living both on the ground and in trees. Being social animals they hang out in groups, we saw about 10 lounging in the trees. Much of their time is spent foraging for food, such as fruits, insects and even lizards. The average weight is 9 pounds. A Coati's life span is approximately 8 years, but ones in captivity have lived over 17 years.

tree root

Enormous trees and their roots are abundant.
Us in - between some almost scary roots!

leaf cutter ants

Roy our guide found this little frog under some leaves by a stream.

Leaf cutter ants working hard.

macaws

A magnificent experience is seeing Scarlet Macaws flying freely in their natural habitat. They can fly at speeds up to 35 miles per hour, often in pairs or small flocks. Here they are eating fresh almonds in almond trees.
To the right is a Bare-throated Tiger Heron.

Roy our Guide

We were the only ones on our excursion, so Mark and I had an excellent time stopping to take photos when we wanted. Roy works for Delfin Amor. His knowledge of animals, birds, plants and all the wonders of the rain forest is excellent. Roy is extremely nice and fun to spend the day with too! Photos of Roy from our day at Corcovado.

The Park runs parallel with the Ocean, so its easy to leave the rain forest paths and walk along the beach to investigate there. Here we saw fresh Tapir tracks in the sand. Tapirs are large animals, kinda resembling a wild boar, but larger. The Costa Rican variety is called Baird's Tapir they are about 6.5 feet in length and weigh up to 700 pounds. We never could find the Tapir, but it was nice to know it was there. They are an endangered species.
tapir tracks

Here are sand mounds dug up by the hundreds of crabs that hide in their holes as soon as you approach.

crab claw

Various large and small sea shells along with colourful crab claws, stones etc. make for interesting compositions.

mark beach

Mark along the beach of Corcovado National Park.

Carla by a waterfalls in the secondary rain forest area of the Park.
Our morning hike was 5 hours long, it was easy going. Our afternoon hike was about 2 hours, on a more rugged path.

us swimming

This Osa Peninsula region of Costa Rica is quite humid. The temperature on our visit was about 34 C. So you get very hot while hiking! This beautiful cool fresh water pool in the tropical forest is an awesome site! This swim felt SO good! We are standing here, so its not too deep either.

Mark & Carla on the beach

Us enjoying a break on the beach.
Its recommended to wear long pants and sleeves to Corcovado because of the bugs. We were lucky and had no problems, only saw 1 mosquito. A couple black flies wanted to bite my bare feet during lunch. There is a steam right by the Rangers Station that you have to cross, so my shoes were off because we had just crossed it. You can leave your sandals under a tree by the stream after you cross, then hike in your hiking shoes, so when you return your sandals will be there to put on to cross the river again. It had just rained lightly the night before, but it was the "dry season" so the paths were a little muddy in spots but nothing that was too yucky or that we needed high boots for.

blue morpho butterfly

Blue Morpho Butterflies are widespread in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America as well as in the West Indies. They are 6 inches of stunning bright iridescent blue. The blue color comes, not from a pigment, but from iridescence - the reflection and refraction of light through prism-like, portions of the scales. In contrast, the underside is dark brown, providing some camouflage for a resting butterfly.

Corcovado is a great place to see lots of the Morphos.

They aren't the easiest things to photograph however! This was the best we could do.