Gandoca- Manzanillo Wildlife refuge

Size: 5,013 hectares of land 4,436 hectares of sea
Camping: Not permitted
Distance from San José: 241 kilometers

The refuge is located on the Caribbean in one of Costa Rica's most scenic regions. The coast is shaped by a chain of headlands set between white sandy beaches with smooth slopes into gently lapping water. The beaches are fringed by innumerable coconut palm trees and surrounded by coral reefs that extends 200 meter of shore.

The Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge contains a few of Costa Rica's last living coral reefs and the last orey swamp in the country. It also contains the only intact mangrove swamp on the Atlantic coast, an important turtle nesting beach.

A notable bird sighting have been made, and it is taught to be the re-appearance of the harpy eagles. This huge raptor was probably extinct in Costa Rica due to the deforestation and hunting pressure, but these sightings in recent years give us the hope that someday that species will be once again living in those areas, it could return by itself or be reintroduced.

The coral reefs in front of Uva, Manzanillo and Mona Points measure 5 square kilometers all together and there you could find most of the corals and octocorals species.
Fairly common plant that grows throughout the reef area is turtle grass. It forms an underwater grassland that is not very deep and that is host to several kinds of seaweed, and food for some fish, mollusk and sea snails.

Most of the refuge, which is flat or gently rolling with small hills no higher that 100 meters, is covered with forest, and the rest with grasslands and some farms.

A very abundant species in the understorey and in clearings is the heliconia, a plant that grows 2 meters tall and has very conspicuous and beautiful inflorescences with brightly colored bractlets that are usually red and yellow.

To the southeast of the refuge lies the Gandoca estuary which is made up almost exclusively of red mangrove.

Trees found here: holillo palm, sajo, cativo, coconut palm, sea grape, red mangrove,

Animals found here: crocodile (endangered species), tapir (endangered species), caiman, paca, West Indian manatee (endangered specie)

Species that live at the coral reef: queen angelfish, French angelfish, rock beauty, blue parrot fish, Chaetodon ocellatus, lobster, sponges, red urchin, long-spined black urchin, sun anemone, Venus sea fans, sea cucumbers, white shrimp, and Pacific green turtles, oysters, Atlantic tarpon.

Birds found here: crested-mandibled toucan, ornate hawk-eagle, red-loren amazon, red-capped manakin, sulphur-winged parakeet, broad-billed motmot, collared aracari, and lineated woodpecker.