The Refuge

A few days ago my husband and I were in Manzanillo, Costa Rica, a quaint little costal town. We scheduled a trip to go kayaking in Gondoca Lagoon nearby, which is part of a national refuge of around 9500 hectares. So, we woke up around 4:45 in the morning, reminding me of my crew days in college, and headed to the meeting spot. Around 6:30 am, the time we were supposed to be there (thanks to a little mistake our alarm was set an hour early), a man, who later introduced himself as Omar, rode up on a bicycle and said we should head to the beach.

After arriving on the beach, we took a boat ride to a nearby organic farm, only accessible by boat, horseback, hiking or kayak to pick up our kayaks for the morning. Our guide, Omar, said the organic farm, Punta Mona (meaning Monkey Point), grows over 600 varieties of fruits and vegetables, perhaps some other crops as well. The farm is well-known in the area, and accepts volunteers to learn sustainable farming year round. Organic farming has been practiced in the region by the Bribri for hundreds of years. It makes sense then that the region should continue this practice. If you want more information on the organic farm, go to www.puntamona.org

After picking up our kayaks, we went to the lagoon, which is a part of the Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge, housing the organic farm, portions of Gandoca and Manzanillo and the lagoon. It is also the location where leatherback turtles lay their eggs every year - it is such a shame we missed this, as the high season is January to April. The lagoon, we discoved after getting our feet wet (and pretty much everything else), has amazing mangroves. Mangroves, if you are unaware, are unique in that they grow in areas where fresh water meets salt water. Because they are so delicate and cannot grow around other trees well, they adapted to suit these environments. They have become integral to costal areas, by acting as natural barriers to erosion. For that reason, many places, Florida in particular comes to mind, have discovered that eradicating the Mangroves can mean disaster for the natural ecosystem.

We then kayaked up the lagoon and viewed a variety of birds (sorry to say that I am not that knowledgable in this area and only remember the Osprey sighting). Omar mentioned that the area is home to 400 types of birds year round; however, as the rainforest is cut down, increasingly every year, more birds migrate to the lagoon. He says that somewhere around 800 birds can now be seen in the area!

As we continued along, and the hours passed, it now being somewhere around 8:00, my hopes of seeing monkeys deminished. However, Omar spotted some spidermonkeys in the trees, literally trying to pull branches over to make bridges. It was an amazing sight. We also got to see white-faced monkeys and we heard the howler monkeys. Luckily for us our one upshot of the excessively early morning was that we got to see a howler monkey crossing the road around 5:30 am; so the fact we missed them in the lagoon was not disappointing.

All in all, the trip was a phenomenal success. My arms ached liked they used to, a soreness I had forgotten, but relish; and we got to learn more about the area.
If you want to check out more about the refuge, go to http://www.moon.com/planner/costa_rica/mustsee/gandoca.html