Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 - Granito de Oro, Coiba Nat'l Park, Panama
I made it off the boat this week!! On Sunday, I had a day off, of which I decided to take full advantage!
I disembarked at Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, which is the smallest national park in Costa Rica. Despite its small "stature," it is on Forbes' list of "the 12 most beautiful national parks."
I joined a group of the Sea Lion's guests on a hike up to Punta Catedral ("Cathedral Point"), which is only reached via a 1.5 mile hike up a steep hill. Walking along the path, we first came upon this little fella...
...a white-headed capuchin monkey.
Some of the guests began to smile at the "cute lil' monkey," and he soon copied the facial expression.
However, it turns out that he was NOT smiling for the cameras; apparently, showing teeth is an indication that you wish to fight...keep that in mind the next time you smirk at a primate.
Soon, levity (and hunger) lightened the monkey's mood, and he proceeded to stuff his face...
Having lived in Southern California, palm trees are nothing new to me. What ARE new to me are porcupine palm trees, which sport these non-threatening spines...
As we approached the end of our hike, we discovered these two characters lounging about the fallen wood on the beach...
...black spiny-tailed iguanas, or ctenosaurs.
Also, hanging high above in the branches, there was a brown-throated, three-toed sloth. If you can zoom in, you can see his signature smirk...
Making our way back, we walked near the beach and witnessed a familiar sight: a raccoon was making off with beach-goers' chips and cookies...
...some things never change.
We also were fortunate enough to watch a troop of Central American squirrel monkeys moving across the branches...
Unfortunately, the only species of monkey that I was not fortunate enough to witness was the Howler monkey. I saw them at Barro Colorado Island, but only glimpses. Perhaps on another day...
No comments:
Post a Comment