Parks and Islands
Tortuga Island
Tortuga Island is located in the Gulf of Nicoya. With its palm-studded beaches, pristine white sand, and turquoise waters, it makes for the perfect one-day excursion. Tortuga Island is incredible for snorkeling and seeing marine life. It also has a 40-minute hiking trail that allows for you to see all types of flora and fauna. Bring a picnic - take a swim - and relax in this beautiful setting.
Curu Wildlife Refuge
This is an anomaly among Costa Rica's protected areas. This 84-hectare/ 207-acre wildlife refuge is surrounded by a 1,200-hectare/2,964-acre farm and forest under cooperative protection with the Park Service and the farm's proprietors. The story of Curu's preservation is admirable. Federico Schutt de la Croix established a large plantation here in 1933 and made it clear to his family that he wanted the area to always remain pristine, even after his death. They follow his philosophy of ecological preservation and sustainable farming. There are silent beaches along the seafront and several hiking trails in the seven habitats: deciduous, semi-deciduous, hill forest, beach, littoral woodland, mangrove swamp, and a lagoon (the only one left on the peninsula). A rich diversity of wildlife includes troops of white-faced capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, over 222 species of birds, and three types of turtles that use the shore for nesting. Located about seven km/4.4 miles south of Paquera. Look for the farmhouse on stilts to your left, and don't forget to cover yourself with insect repellent before including this on your Costa Rica travel itinerary.
Cabo Blanco Absolute Reserve
This is the largest single area in Costa Rica set aside as an "Absolute Reserve," which absolutely restricts the impact of humans. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy while traveling in Costa Rica. To aid their conservation goal, Cabo Blanco limits entrance and provides minimal facilities. You can't camp in the park, and the only thing to do is hike in and hike back out along the marked trails. The ranger station, two km/1.25 miles from Cabuya, has good maps of the various trails.
What's so great about so few people entering the 1,172-hectare/2,895- acre reserve is that wildlife abounds - variegated squirrel, mantled howler monkeys, white-throated capuchin monkeys, agouti, white-nosed coati, even jaguarundi. Off the tip of the shore, Isla Cabo Blanco is a bird breeding preserve, home to 400 pair of brown boobies. Cabo Blanco got its name from the Spanish explorers who saw the thick layers of white bird excrement on the island's rocks. Expatriates Karen Morgenson and Olof Nicolas Wessberg arranged the purchase of the area in 1963 and donated it to the Costa Rican government - an act that spurred the creation of the National Park Service. When they bought it, the core of Cabo Blanco (15%) was all that was left of primary rainforest; the rest of the land around it had been cut and cleared for pasture. One of the reasons this is now an "absolute reserve" is to see how well and how quickly the rainforest can heal itself. Using the core as a genetic seed bank, the remaining 85% of the reserve is now secondary forest, an encouraging sign for the world's rainforests.