Playa Potrero is a small beach town on the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica, located in the Guanacaste region. This is a great location for wildlife viewing due to its proximity to many of Costa Rica's national parks. One park of particular interest is the Playa Grande Beach Preserve. This is one of four nesting sites on the the entire planet for the giant leatherback sea turtles, and by far the most significant. Like many species here, the populations of the leatherback are on a steady decline. This is mainly due to crude commercial fishing methods, and land development on their nesting sites. Costa Rica has launched a major conservation effort to protect the future of this giant turtle. We are lucky enough to be here during nesting season, so we were excited to take a tour of Playa Grande to see them up close and personal. The tour was interesting because the leatherbacks come up on shore during a six hour window that is three hours before high tide and three hours after, so you have to be there during that time. When we arrived, they sat us down in a room and gave us a small presentation about the turtles, and then we just had to wait....and wait.....and wait....and wait. Unfortunately, the turtles never came that night, so we were out of luck. I was really looking forward to seeing the turtles, so it was kind of a bummer, but that's nature. They seemed pretty concerned because the turtles didn't show up the night before either.
Yesterday, we woke up early to take a tour of the Palo Verde national park for a riverboat tour of the Tempisque river. This tour was a nature lovers dream! We saw more bird species than I can count, crocodiles, lizards and the highlight of the trip-Monkeys! We were fortunate enough to see the white face monkeys, which actualy jumped on to the boat to grab bananas out of our hands, and howler monkeys. Although getting to feed wild white-faced monkeys was great, the highlight for me was the Howler Monkeys. They are very territorial, so they are very willing to show you how they got their name! As soon a we approached the males got all worked up and started yelling at us, but when the guide revved up the motor they went ballistic! The name Howler realy doesn't do them justice. They let out a really deep roar that is unmistakable. They say that you can hear the call of a Howler from a mile away. That's pretty crazy considering that they are about the side of a medium sized dog. You can see the best photos from the trip here- http://www.flickr.com/photos/amador01/ All were taken handheld with the Sigma 100-300. Sorry for the links, but the photo upload isn't working for some reason.
Yesterday, we woke up early to take a tour of the Palo Verde national park for a riverboat tour of the Tempisque river. This tour was a nature lovers dream! We saw more bird species than I can count, crocodiles, lizards and the highlight of the trip-Monkeys! We were fortunate enough to see the white face monkeys, which actualy jumped on to the boat to grab bananas out of our hands, and howler monkeys. Although getting to feed wild white-faced monkeys was great, the highlight for me was the Howler Monkeys. They are very territorial, so they are very willing to show you how they got their name! As soon a we approached the males got all worked up and started yelling at us, but when the guide revved up the motor they went ballistic! The name Howler realy doesn't do them justice. They let out a really deep roar that is unmistakable. They say that you can hear the call of a Howler from a mile away. That's pretty crazy considering that they are about the side of a medium sized dog. You can see the best photos from the trip here- http://www.flickr.com/photos/amador01/ All were taken handheld with the Sigma 100-300. Sorry for the links, but the photo upload isn't working for some reason.
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