Cahuita National Park

Today, the words ‘’There’s a racoon on the beach’’ came out my mouth. We have now travelled pretty extensively across the world in the past few years, but today we can hands down say that Cahuita National parks was one of the best places we have been to.
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After a few drinks last night with friends from home we arranged that the 4 of us would make this epic mission to spend the day adventuring in the National park. Costa Rica is known for its bio-diversity, ecotourism and national parks. Staying in PV has been wonderful as it’s the perfect gateway to Cahuita National Park situated a mere 16kms North.

 It has been voted as one of the most amazing parks in the country so when we read that we knew it had to be on the list of ‘to do’s’. A bit of history for you; It was created in 1970 as a National Monument to preserve the coral reefs off the Caribbean coast, but later, the area was reformed as a national park. Currently, it relies on donations and does not charge an admission fee. Yes, we couldn’t believe it either…a free National park!
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You can easily catch the Limon bus from PV costing 860Colon (about $2NZD) which will take 30 minutes and drop you about 5minutes from the parks entrance. From there you can sign in and make your donation or simply walk on through depending on the level of wealth you are currently facing. 

​From the second we entered the park – ‘WOW’, ‘HOLY SHIT’, ‘THIS PLACE IS INCREDIBLE’ were all thrown around and justifiable so. Through the 8km track from the entrance to the main exit there is apparently a wide variety of animal life that can be seen including sloths, white faced capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, northern tamanduas, pacas, white-nosed coatis, raccoons and agoutis. 

​Truly incredible. We also had the chance to get up close and personal with a full group of Capuchin monkeys as they thought we had food and came swinging down from the trees nearly crashing in to us multiple times. On top of all this wonderful nature, the park is teaming with beautiful places to stop and relax on the beach.

​The busiest is Playa Blanca, the first beach reached from the Kelly Creek entrance but our fav was Punta Cahuita until it became busy with other tourists, so we spent the arvo in a deserted Playa Vargas. Overall, this day was awesome, we all came back on cloud 9 (knackered) but simply amazed with the true natural beauty that Costa Rica has to offer. If I lived here, I would visit this park weekly for sure. Please put this park on your Bucket List!