Page 91 - NORTHERN GUANACASTE TOURIST GUIDE

Natural spectacles Guanacaste
Whale watching
Whale watching activities along the northern Pacific coast focus on humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The coastal communities in the country’s southern Pacific region have a longer history of whale watching activities (Dominical, Uvita, Drake Bay, Caño Island, Golfo Dulce). However, in recent years, commercial whale watching has also come to coastal communities in the northern Pacific (Cuajiniquil, Gulf of Papagayo, Tamarindo, El Coco, Sámara, etc.). During the winter in the northern hemisphere (December to March), the humpback whales that feed off the northwestern coast of the United States (Washington, Oregon and northern California) migrate to the tropical waters of Costa Rica to mate, give birth and nurse their calves.
These giant, majestic mammals and their young can be seen between December and April in northern Costa Rica and further south from the first weeks of July until the end of October.
Whale watching has provided important benefits for environmental education and research, as well as providing the perfect excuse to see some of the most beautiful and impressive natural sites in Costa Rica.
Video Ver infograma de ballenas
Olive ridley turtle
(Lepidochelys olivacea)
Playa Nancite is located in the marine zone of the ACG, in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Papagayo. At the moment it is only open for research, tourist visits are not allowed. This remote beach is home to an olive ridley turtle population that has been studied intermittently since its discovery as an arribada beach in 1970. An arribada is the massive and synchronized nesting of thousands of turtles of this species, which occurs in the span of a few nights.
Today there are four known major nesting beaches, Escobilla in Mexico, Gahirmatha and Rushikulya in India and Ostional in Costa Rica. There are also smaller arribada beaches, La Flor and Chacocente in Nicaragua, La Marinera and Isla Cañas in Panama, and Nancite in Costa Rica. At Nancite beach, arribadas occur approximately once a month and mainly during the months of August to November, although arribadas have been observed to occur in every month of the year.
The population has collapsed, but has since stabilized and now shows signs of recovery.
www.acguanacaste.ac.cr Video
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