CAÑO NEGRO REFUGE

Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge (Caño Negro Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Fauna) is a remote tropical everglade teeming with wildlife. The 9,969-hectare reserve protects a lush lowland basin of soft, knee-deep watery sloughs and marshes centered on Lago Caño Negro, a seasonal lake fed by the fresh waters of the Río Frío, which makes an ideal waterway for guided boat tours from Los Chiles.

The region floods in wet season. In February, the dry season sets in (it generally lasts through April), Caño Negro dries out, and the area is reduced to shrunken lagoons; caiman gnash and slosh out pools in the muck, and wildlife congregate along the watercourses.

Caño Negro is a bird-watcher’s paradise. The reserve protects the largest colony of neotropic cormorants in Costa Rica and the only permanent colony of Nicaraguan grackle. Cattle egrets, wood storks, anhingas, roseate spoonbills, and other waterfowl gather in the thousands. The bright pink roseate spoonbill is one of Caño Negro’s most spectacular wading birds. It is named for its spatulate bill, some 15–19 cm long, which it swings from side to side as it munches insects or small shellfish. Another of my favorites is the anhinga, a bird as adept underwater as in the air (it goes by three aliases: snakebird, for its serpentine neck; American darter, for its jerky movements; and water turkey, for the way its tail spreads in flight). You can see it solo or by the dozen, preening way up in the cypress trees.

The reserve is remarkable, too, for its population of endangered mammal species, including jaguars, cougars, tapirs, ocelots, and tayras. There are always sure to be plenty of monkeys playacting. The crocodile colony of Caño Negro is perhaps the best-protected in Costa Rica, though caimans are far more numerous and easily seen. And looking down into waters as black as Costa Rican coffee, you may see the dim forms of big snook, silver-gold tarpon, and garish garfish.

The mosquitoes—though tiny—eye your arrival greedily. Bring plenty of repellent.

The hamlet of Caño Negro, 23 km southwest of Los Chiles, nestles on the northwest shore of Lago Caño Negro. Locals make their living from fishing and guiding.

The ranger station (tel. 506/661-8464) is 400 meters inland from the dock. The regional office is in Los Chiles (tel. 506/460-6484, fax 506/460-5615, arayad@ns.minae.go.cr).

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Sports and Recreation
Caño Negro’s waters almost boil with tarpon, snook, drum, guapote, machaca, and mojarra. Fishing season is July–March (no fishing is allowed April–June); licenses ($30) are required, obtainable from the ranger station in the village, or through the various fishing lodges.

Hotel Caño Negro Fishing Club charges $30–40 per hour, including guide for fishing. It also offers lagoon tours ($15 per hour) and horseback tours ($8 per hour), and you can rent kayaks ($10 s, $15 d per hour) and bicycles. Natural Lodge Caño Negro also offers fishing, including three- to six-day fishing packages, plus birding and ecological excursions.

Local guides will take you fishing from Los Chiles or Caño Negro village.

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Getting There
A road from El Parque, 10 km south of Los Chiles, runs 10 km west to a bridge at San Emilio, from where you can reach Caño Negro village via a dirt road that continues south to Colonia Puntarenas, on the main La Fortuna-Upala road (Hwy. 4). 4WD is recommended Storms and flooding in wet season occasionally put the bridge out of commission, and a water-taxi must ferry passengers.

A bus runs daily from Upala to Caño Negro village via Colonia Puntarenas when conditions allow.

You can rent a boat at the dock in Los Chiles for $60 for two people, or $15 pp for six people or more.

Tour operators in San José, Los Chiles, and throughout the lowlands offer guided day trips to Caño Negro.