Costa Rica

personal perspective:

Years ago on a backpacking nature trip through North, Central and South America, I spent a month in Costa Rica.

travelling in Costa Rica...

This is a fantastic country to explore neotropical rainforest. It is relatively safe (no military!). Due to the influence of the USA, English is widely spoken. And they have a great national park system.

nature and wildlife in Costa Rica...

They also have an amazing range of ecosystems within a small country. I explored lowland tropical rainforest in their largest park, 'dry' forest, but they also have coral reefs and highland 'cloud forest' (neither of which I had the chance to explore).

Corcovado National Park is located in the south west. It is the largest national park. When I visited there over a decade ago, it required hiking in a fair way to get access to a fairly basic research station. I understand this is still the case. This is great, as it really means the area is unspoiled. During the day I saw tent-making bats under leaves and agouti/paca and peccary on the forest floor, and toucans in the canopy. At night I spotlighted tapir.

In the north-west is Santa Rosa National Park. This park is 'dry' rainforest, or savanna, with trees such as thorny Acacias. Here I have sees a mixture of neotropical (South American) animals (such as army ants), and Nearctic (North American) animals (skunk, white-tailed deer, etc)