Corcovado National Park
Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park Tweet
The Most Biological Place on Earth?
Most tourists do not realize that Costa Rica got its name from Christopher Columbus who explored the Americas in 1502. He sailed the Caribbean from Mexico south, landed south of what is now Limon, Costa Rica, and named his discovery 'Costa Rica' or the 'rich coast'. We can only imagine what he saw along the way. Spectacular tropical forests covering Central America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Waters teeming with fish, porpoises, and whales. So many sea turtles that seafarers, lost in the fog, found shore simply by listening to the sounds of tens of thousands of animals paddling towards nesting beaches.
Alas, the passage of five centuries has not been kind to either the forests or animals and today most of the primary forests from Mexico to South America have been cut down or burned. Fortunately, Costa Rica had the good sense to preserve Corcovado and its primary rainforest.
About 75 years after Columbus landed on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica an English sea captain, Sir Frances Drake (you may recall that he is the fellow who destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588 and saved England from Spain), explored its Pacific coast and, indeed, landed in a lovely bay on the north end of the Osa Peninsula. Famous for its gateway to the Osa and its fabulous sports fishing, you may have heard of it: Drake Bay.
Corcovado is very tiny (not small, tiny), less than 160 square miles in size. That is about 20 miles long and 8 miles deep, about half the size of New York City. Tiny. Even so, it is incredible. Described as 'the most biologically intense place' on earth by National Geographic, it is largely unspoiled and the single largest surviving rain forest situated on the Pacific Coast from Mexico to South America. The mangroves and other biodiverse areas of Corcovado protect an incredible array of plants and animals. There are 139 species of mammals, including the mighty jaguar, puma, ocelot, and three other kinds of wild cats.
On your Costa Rica vacation to Corcovado, you will also find 400 different species of birds (the entire continent of Europe has 1000 species and the continental U.S. has 900) living in an area less than half the size of New York City! The largest remaining Central America population of scarlet macaws live here, along with 116 kinds of amphibians and reptiles.
'Intense" is exactly right: 10% of all the different kinds of mammals in the whole of the Americas are found here---in a park less than 1/20th the size of Yellowstone National Park. 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 seemingly deserted beaches of the park provide a nesting ground for four species of sea turtle and because of the large tapir population jaguars and crocodiles also inhabit this area. They prefer to hunt around the edges of the Corcovado Lagoon and are often sighted. The footprints of this large carnivorous cat are often found in the mud trails which surround the lagoon. The forests of Corcovado are as impressive as the rainforests of the Amazon, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This area receives as much as 400 cm or rain annually and torrential rains fall during the April to December months. If you plan to travel Costa Rica and visit this gem, it is best to plan a trip to Corcovado in the dry months which are January to April.
Vic Krumm writes from lovely Costa Rica in his beautiful Costa Rica Vacations website. Check out unique Corcovado Park here.
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