Adventures in Monkeyland: Playa Brasilito and Palo Verde National Park

Hello-

We had a little break at the end of February and I managed to leave Bagaces for the first time in 2 months (except for going to the field). It was good to get out of town and see something new for a change. I decided to check out Playa Brasilito since it is relatively close to me (3 hours by bus) and a slightly less touristy beach town. It was nice to just walk up and down the beach, read a book, and take naps. The first day my mind was still in work mode and I was thinking constantly of what I should be working on back at home, but by the second day I was finally starting to get into vacation mode and allowing myself to relax.

Playa Brasilito

I headed back to Bagaces early (before everyone else) so I could work on my data a little before the work month started (I can never relax THAT much). But my former field manager, Hannah, was in town so I ended up hanging out with her and some other people. We went to visit Palo Verde National Park. This park is just south of Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve where I work, but I have never visited it because it is hard to access via public transportation. It turned out to be a great day.

First we saw some white-faced capuchins. It was weird to see monkeys and not know their names and personalities. We all decided that our monkeys are much better looking :)

We also saw some coatimundis which are pretty common in Lomas too. They are kind of racoon-like, but they way they walk reminds me of the Rodents of Unusual Size from 'The Princess Bride'.

Then we headed to the river to look for more wildlife. We saw water storks and a crocodile basking in the sun on the bank of the river!

One of the nicest parts of the park was the wetlands. I had no idea there were wetlands in this area since it is a DRY tropical rainforest. We saw lots of cool water birds and heard lots of frogs. All in all it was a beautiful place.