Without a doubt, Costa Rica is a beautiful, spectacular country and a premier tourist destination. Most people, though, have never heard of its natural gem, Corcovado National Park. This teeny park covers only 100,000 acres (about 42,000 hectares) of the Osa Peninsula, situated along the south Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and protects eight unique habitats. It is unlike almost anywhere else on the planet and the largest remaining primary forest in Central America.
When Christopher Columbus explored the Americas in 1502 he traveled the Caribbean from Mexico south to a land he called 'Costa Rica', the 'rich coast'. The name stuck. Fabulous tropical forests covered the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific and there were so many sea turtles that sometimes mariners, lost in the fog, found land by listening to the sounds of tens of thousands of animals paddling towards nesting beaches. Unfortunately, the passage of 500 years 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.
Some 75 years after Columbus landed its Caribbean coast and named it Costa Rica, the English sea captain, Sir Frances Drake (the same one who destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588, saving England from Spain), explored its Pacific coast and, in fact, landed at a lovely bay on the north end of the Osa Peninsula which is now called Drake Bay in his honor. If you visit Corcovado, you will probably do so from the very same bay Sir Frances did.
Though Corcovado is very tiny, only about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide----less than half the size of New York City, it is, as National Georgraphic says: the most biologically intense place on the globe. Consider this: There are 400 different species of birds crammed into this teeny place (the 48 States of the continental United States have about 900). The largest remaining Central America population of the spectacular, and increasingly rare, scarlet macaws, is still common here. The Corcovado mammal species represent 10% of the kinds of mammals to be found in all of the Americas and they exist on just 0.000101777 percent of the landmass. There are 116 species of reptile and amphibians and 139 different mammals found here. To put this parks size in context, you could fit it into Yellowstone more than 22 times! Yet, it contains six different kinds of wild cats, including the magnificent 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 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. It is best for visitors to plan a trip to Corcovado in the dry months which are January to April.
About the Author:
Victor C. Krumm writes from sunny Costa Rica in his informative Costa Rica Vacations website. See more about endangered Sea Turtles. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
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