Remote and Beautiful
So there are two wildlife parks within half hour of my house. One is in Cahuita, and has been given full national park status. The other is the Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Reserve, which is part government, and part privately owned. It's unique in the fact that there are parcels of land that are owned inside of it, with some full-time residents. The other interesting part is that if the government decides to give it national park status, those landowners will lose their land through a process similar to eminent domain, and receive pennies on the dollar for their land. But I digress, this is not about land ownership issues, but rather how amazing this little corner of the world is.
First, in order to get here, you take the one road, Route 36, from town all the way until basically it ends at Manzanillo village, which is home to about 300 full-time residents. It is a small collection of streets, houses, a school, a cemetery and a handful of shops with a couple of airbnbs and lodges sprinkled throughout. But as you go past the village, the roads go from paved to dirt and eventually it dead ends at the entrance to the reserve.
Coastline and Beaches
To get in, you have to sign in with all of your information and if you choose leave a donation with the park employees at the entrance. The park itself hugs the coastline and entrance to the water is through either sand beaches or coral rock. There are a couple of beaches in the park that offer decent surfing, still others that have some good tide pools and offer snorkeling. And there are some others that offer stunning cliff views of the water below. There are literally dozens of small alcoves, beaches and coral rock formations you can find by meandering off the main trail, following small wispy trails leading through the jungle down to turquoise water with hints of reef right off the beach.
The park extends down to the Panama border, and connects the town of Manzanillo with Gandoca, encompassing a large amount of hectares. Just how many is up for debate, as there are competing numbers online...best I can tell it's about 10,000 hectares, but take that with a grain of salt. It is a a two-day hike across the park to the other side. The park itself has lots of really cool stops in it like Punta Mona, which is known for its bird sightings and snorkeling; and Miss May point, which is one of the most iconic spots in the park, offering amazing views of a rocky island off the coast and jungle lined beaches.
Jungle-y Goodness
But the real stunner is the jungle itself. There is what they call the highway that extends kilometers down from the Manzanillo entrance. This is a large trail that has been carved out of the forest and if you stick to this, you probably don't need a guide. Although without a guide, you are probably going to miss a lot of wildlife. But there are also several other trials in the reserve, some of them are clearly marked, and some are not. There is a labyrinthine quality to this park that I cannot navigate once I step off the main trail by myself.
The highway. Large trail carved as a main route through the park.
I always hire a guide. And I always use the same guide, a man I met 12 years ago, who came recommended to me by the owners of the first place I stayed in Punta Uva. Tino helped carve out the original trails when the park first achieved status in the '80s. Since then, he has been doing both marine and land conservation work, and operating as a guide mostly by word of mouth for those that want to explore this area. Because he has been doing this for so long, he has an arrangement with one of the landowners that lives full-time deep in the park that gives Tino and his client's access to the man's private land. This allows for a truly off the beaten path experience, bushwhacking into both secondary and primary jungle, sometimes with no trails at all. For reference there are no amenities in the park, no electricity or running water. The man lives completely off-grid.
Fauna, lots of it
The hike is about 6 km, but it is a rough 6 km. About halfway through, you find yourself at this small pond full of spectacled caiman, them staring at you warily, trying to size you up. Along the path, there is lots to see. Every time I come in I see something different. There are poison frogs, like the strawberry poison dart frog, or the lovely poison frog. There are lots of species of snakes, one of the most common here is the eyelash pit viper which comes in a variety of colors. One of the really cool things about this species of pit viper is that it comes in about a dozen or more colors, everything from yellow gray and white to the more exotic pink and green and even red. The other thing about this snake is that it's truly arboreal, which means that it can use its unique tail to not only exist in the branches but rest on the side of the tree along the trunk. This means that you have to be very careful where you put your hands when you steady yourself here.
Helmeted basilisk
Eyelash pit viper
Strawberry poison frog
Lovely poison frog
Eyelash pit viper
There are three types of monkeys that are also in this park: the white face capuchin, the spider monkey, and the most common-the howler. The howler monkey is so loud and distinct that It's call was used as the dinosaur roar in Jurassic Park. It is deep, feral, and can be heard for miles. In addition to monkeys, there are two types of sloth that are easily seen here, the two-toed which is nocturnal and a tad more aggressive, and the three-toed which is diurnal, darker and has the eternal smile that folks are used to when thinking about a sloth.
We have a stunning variety of birds as well. Everything from the endangered Great Green Macaw, the keel billed Toucan, Collared Aracari, to several species of parrot and other macaws, to the Great Curassow, Crested Guan, two species of Orenpendulas, motmots, and a host of herons like green-backed and the tiger heron.
There are peccary, ocelots, margays, anteaters, Jaguarundi and even jaguar still here. Rumor has it even there are still tapir deep in the furthest reaches of this park, and I've heard people talk about manatees in the coastal waters too. Tino, my guide has seen margay and last month, he claims to have run into fresh jaguar poop. I have a friend who has seen a Jaguarundi here and the man who leases use of his land to Tino has confirmed to me that he sees both ocelots and margays "several nights a week."
The variety of insects and butterflies cannot be overstated. Every time I go in I see something that blows my mind. This last time, I had my first sighting of an executioner wasp. In fact, there were several making nests under adjacent leaves on big plants. They were 2 inch long, very mean looking, and just absolutely stunning. I have seen every color of butterfly from the giant blue morpho, to the yellow edged giant owl, which is a purple and orange yellow species. I have seen green malachite butterflies, and those in every color from turquoise to yellow to orange deep red even clear winged species.
To recap, this place is kind of hard to get to, but well worth every second you take. Nothing along the South Caribbean Coast seems designed to be easy to get to. You don't accidentally end up here. It is deliberate to take the 5 hour drive here once you land in San Jose. You have to want to explore this corner of the world. Most never get here. And for those that do, even fewer end up at the reserve at the end of the road. It is a truly unique little corner of the world that is worth spending time to explore. For those that get here, should you be interested in connecting with Tino, hit me up and I'll pass along his info, until then happy travels.
Comments