"Costa Rica Hotel Rain Forest"

A little known and les explored Rain Forest is located in the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. It is known as the GANDOCA-MANZANILLO WILDLIFE REFUGE.

It is one of Costa Rica’s best-kept secrets, 9,446-hectare Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo protects a spectacularly beautiful, brown-sand, palm-fringed, nine-km-long, crescent-shaped beach (littered with logs washed ashore) where four species of turtles—most abundantly, leatherback turtles—come ashore to lay their eggs (Jan.–April is best). Some 4,436 hectares of the park extends out to sea, protecting the shore breeding grounds for turtles. The ocean has riptides and is not safe for swimming.
The reserve—which is 65 percent tropical rainforest—also protects rare swamp habitats, including the only mangrove forest on Costa Rica’s Caribbean shores, two holillo palm swamps (important habitat for tapirs), a 300-hectare cativo forest, and a live coral reef 200 meters offshore.

The large freshwater Gandoca Lagoon, one km south of Gandoca village, runs up to 50 meters deep and has two openings into the sea. The estuary, full of red mangrove trees, is a complex world braided by small brackish streams and snakelike creeks, which sometimes interconnect, sometimes peter out in narrow cul-de-sacs, and sometimes open suddenly into broad lagoons that all look alike. The mangroves shelter both a giant oyster bed and a nursery for lobster and the swift and powerful tarpon. Manatees swim and breed here, as do crocodiles and caimans. The park is a seasonal or permanent home to at least 358 species of birds (including toucans, red-lored Amazon parakeets, and hawk-eagles) as well as margays, ocelots, pacas, and sloths. And a rare estuarine dolphin—the tucuxí—was recently discovered in the lagoons.

The park is easily explored simply by walking the beaches; trails also wind through the flat, lowland rainforest fringing the coast. A coastal track that skirts the swamps leads south from the east side of Manzanillo village to Gandoca village (two hours), where you can walk the beach one km south to Gandoca Lagoon. Beyond the lagoon, a trail winds through the jungle—teeming with monkeys, parrots, sloths, and snakes—ending at the Río Sixaola and the Panamá border. A guide is recommended and can be arranged for. Most Guides are native to the area and have an intimate knowledge of the Flora and Fauna.

For more information contact us: www.coralhillbungalows.com

For Reservations call: 011-506-27 55 04 79 011-506 88 61 00 63 reservations@coralhillbungalows.com