Ecotourism In Costa Rica: Magical Corcovado Park

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Ecotourism In Costa Rica: Magical Corcovado Park

Situated off the southern Pacific coastline of Costa Rica alongside the shores on the Osa Peninsula, almost on the Panama border, there can be found the Parque Nacional Corcovado (Corcovado National Park). This is a one of a kind protected habitat and is the biggest remaining primary forest on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to South America. There are eight distinctive habitats to be found in the 42,000 hectares (100,000 acres) which form a tiny national park that remains largely virgin. Though teeny, it is the only place of its kind in Latin America. Literally.

As Christopher Columbus explored the Americas in 1502 he traveled the Caribbean from Mexico south to a land he named 'Costa Rica', the 'rich coast'. The name stuck. Magnificent tropical forests blanketed the area from the Atlantic to the Pacific and there were countless numbers of sea turtles that at times seafarers, lost in the fog, found land by following the sounds of tens of thousands of animals paddling in the direction of nesting beaches. Regrettably, the passage of 500 years has not been kind to either the forests or wildlife and nowadays many of the primary forests from Mexico to South America have been cut down or burned. Providentially, Costa Rica had the good sense to preserve Corcovado.

Columbus never saw Corcovado. The pioneer Western traveler to visit it was Sir Frances Drake. The sea captain who destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588 and saved England from Spain. A a small number of years before that brave deed, he landed just north of the Osa Peninsula in an exceedingly beautiful place now named after him: Drake Bay. The bay is often used as the gateway to Corcovado

Though Corcovado is extremely small, only about 20 miles in length and 8 miles wide----less than 50 % the size of New York City, it may be, as National Georgraphic relates: probably the most biologically intense place on the globe. Contemplate the following: One can find 400 different varieties of birds crammed within this teeny park (the 48 States of the continental United States have about 900). The most significant surviving Central America population of the magnificent, and increasingly rare, scarlet macaws, remains commonplace here. The Corcovado mammal species represent 10% of the kinds of mammals that are found in the Americas and they live on just .000101777 percent of the earth's landmass. There are 116 kinds of reptiles and amphibians and 139 different mammals are found here. To put this park's size in context, one could fit it into American's Yellowstone National Park at least 22 times! Still, it contains 6 different kinds of wild felines, among them the impressive jaguar and puma.

Rare frogs such as the red-eyed tree frog, poison-arrow frog and the enigmatic glass frog are all found here. And, this park is one of only a handful of sites in Costa Rica where you will find squirrel monkeys. At night, fishing bats literally scoop fish from the rivers.

The sandy beaches of the Osa Peninsula are seemingly deserted but during nesting season, thousands of green sea turtles, magnificent rare leatherbacks (up to 1,200 pounds), hawksbills and pacific ridleys arrive to nest. Tapirs are very common and are provide a valuable food source for the crocodiles and jaguars inhabiting the park. Jaguars are the largest cat in the Western Hemisphere and, though rare, their paw prints, and sometimes the animals themselves, are sighted along the muddy trails that surround the Corcovado Lagoon.

The forests of Corcovado are as remarkable as the rainforests of the Amazon, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This area gets around 400 cm of rain each year and torrential rains fall during the April to December months. It is best for visitors to plan a trip to Corcovado in the dry months which are January to April.