GANDOCA-MANZANILLO REFUGE

One of Costa Rica’s best-kept secrets, 9,446-hectare Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo protects a spectacularly beautiful, brown-sand, palm-fringed, nine-km-long, crescent-shaped beach (littered with logs washed ashore) where four species of turtles—most abundantly, leatherback turtles—come ashore to lay their eggs (Jan.–April is best). Some 4,436 hectares of the park extends out to sea, protecting the shore breeding grounds for turtles. The ocean has riptides and is not safe for swimming.

The reserve—which is 65 percent tropical rainforest—also protects rare swamp habitats, including the only mangrove forest on Costa Rica’s Caribbean shores, two holillo palm swamps (important habitat for tapirs), a 300-hectare cativo forest, and a live coral reef 200 meters offshore.

The large freshwater Gandoca Lagoon, one km south of Gandoca village, runs up to 50 meters deep and has two openings into the sea. The estuary, full of red mangrove trees, is a complex world braided by small brackish streams and snakelike creeks, which sometimes interconnect, sometimes peter out in narrow cul-de-sacs, and sometimes open suddenly into broad lagoons that all look alike. The mangroves shelter both a giant oysterbed and a nursery for lobster and the swift and powerful tarpon. Manatees swim and breed here, as do crocodiles and caimans. The park is a seasonal or permanent home to at least 358 species of birds (including toucans, red-lored Amazon parakeets, and hawk-eagles) as well as margays, ocelots, pacas, and sloths. And a rare estuarine dolpin—the tucuxí—was recently discovered in the lagoons.

The hamlets of Punta Uva, Manzanillo, Punta Mona, and Gandoca form part of the refuge. Because local communities live within the park, it is a mixed-management reserve; the locals’ needs are integrated into park-management policies. For example, Punta Mona Center for Sustainable Living and Education (tel. 506/614-5735 or 506/391-2116; in the U.S., tel. 305/895-5782 or 800/551-7887, fax 305/892-1469; info@costaricanadventures.com, www.costaricanadventures.com) is an organic farm and environmental center on 12 hectares of abandoned cocao plantations. It teaches traditional and sustainable farming techniques and other environmentally sound practices. It accepts volunteers, and internships are available.

ASACODE (Asociación Sanmigueleña de Conservación y Desarrollo, tel. 506/751-2261 or 506/835-6819, www.asacode.or.cr) is a campesino organization that operates a private reserve-within-the-reserve at the hamlet of San Miguel, deep in the forest on the southern edge of Gandoca-Manzanillo. ASACODE shares an office and works in association with ANAI (Asociación Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas, tel. 506/750-0020 or 506/224-6090, fax 506/253-7524 in San José, anaicr@racsa.co.cr or volunteers@racsa.co.cr, www.anaicr.org) to protect the forest and to evolve a sustainable livelihood through reforestation and other earth-friendly methods.

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Turtle Patrol
Volunteers are needed for the Marine Turtle Conservation Project, which conducts research and protects the turtles from predators and poachers (see sidebar Volunteer Programs to Save the Turtles, in the Background chapter). The tour of duty is one week. You patrol the beach at night, measuring and tagging turtles, camouflaging their nests, and discouraging egg-bandits. Contact ANAI (see above) or ATEC (see sidebar).

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Exploring the Park
The park is easily explored simply by walking the beaches; trails also wind through the flat, lowland rainforest fringing the coast. A coastal track that skirts the swamps leads south from the east side of Manzanillo village to Gandoca village (two hours), where you can walk the beach one km south to Gandoca Lagoon. Beyond the lagoon, a trail winds through the jungle—teeming with monkeys, parrots, sloths, and snakes—ending at the Río Sixaola and the Panamá border. A guide is recommended.

You can hire a guide and boat in Sixaola to take you downriver to the mangrove swamps at the rivermouth (dangerous currents and reefs prevent access from the ocean). If you pilot yourself, stay away from the Panamanian side of the river, as the Panamanian border police are said to be touchy.

Entrance costs $6.

The Manzanillo ranger station (tel. 506/754-2133), is 200 meters south of the village.

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Getting There
You can drive to Gandoca village via a 15-km dirt road that leads north from the Bribrí-Sixaola road; the turnoff is about three km west of Sixaola. Keep left at the crossroads 1.5 km down the road.