Sailing on the Pacific
Trip Start
Jul 18, 2009
1
14
16
Trip End
Aug 03, 2009
Where I stayed
Manuel Antonio National Park, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Friday, July 31, 2009
Today we had booked a sailing trip through the hotel. It was one of the hottest and sunniest days so a trip on a boat was just what we needed. We cruised around the headland and had a chance to view the Parador hotel from the sea and look at its amazing location high up on the headland. There was a chance to do some snorkelling where we saw small sharks. We had armed ourselves with a bag of bread we had taken from breakfast and the fish came in huge shoals to feed from us. For lunch the crew had prepared mahi mahi fried in breadcrumbs it really was delicious.
We saw lots of large sea birds - Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Brown Pelicans and Brown Boobys. The islands off the coast are a very important refuge for sea birds in the area. Olocuita and Mogote Islands are mating and nesting sites for brown pelicans, frigate birds and ahingas. The beaches around here are very beautiful and from a boat you have the opportunity to see them fully with their volcanic cliffs rising steeply from the shoreline. The Pacific here is turquoise and in direct contrast to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica where the sea seemed a lot rougher and not so blue.
Another walk around the hotel gardens late afternoon again yielded a variety of wildlife – there were no fewer than four sloths in close proximity. One was unusually active, scratching and feeding and showing off those incredibly long claws. There were also a lot of birds around including the beautiful Blue Crowned Motmot.
