3 Best Sights in Tortuguero and the Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica

An ambitious project begun two decades ago has slowly improved the survival prospects for the once-endangered great green (Ara ambiguus) and scarlet macaws (Ara macao). A daily 3 pm tour (reservations are required) of the field station acquaints visitors with the breeding and reintroduction into the wild of these colorful birds. A viewing platform set among a forest of mighty trees provides a superb vantage point from which to observe the birds crunching their almonds on nearby branches and to feel the whoosh as they zoom above your head. Throughout the 98-acre property are approximately 100 macaws.

The refuge stretches along the southeastern coast from southeast of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca to the town of Manzanillo and on to the Panamanian border. Its limits are not clearly defined. Because of weak laws governing the conservation of refuges and the rising value of coastal land in this area, Gandoca-Manzanillo is less pristine than Cahuita National Park and continues to be developed. (Development thins out the farther you get from Puerto Viejo and the closer you get to the village of Manzanillo.) Nevertheless, the refuge still has plenty of rainforest, orey (a dark tropical wood) and jolillo (a species of palm) swamps, 10 km (6 miles) of beach where four species of turtle lay their eggs, and almost 3 square km (1 square mile) of cativo (a tropical hardwood) forest and coral reef. You'll most likely spot monkeys, sloths, and perhaps even snakes. The Gandoca estuary is a nursery for tarpon and a wallowing spot for crocodiles and caimans.

Florida's Sea Turtle Conservancy runs a visitor center and a museum with excellent animal photos, a video narrating local and natural history, and detailed discussions of the latest ecological goings-on and what you can do to help; there's a souvenir shop next door. For the committed ecotourist, the John H. Phipps Biological Field Station, which is affiliated with the conservancy and has been operating in Tortuguero since 1959, has camping areas and dorm-style quarters with a communal kitchen. If you want to get involved in the life of the turtles, help researchers track turtle migration (current research, using satellite technology, has tracked turtles as far as the Florida Keys), or help catalog the population of neotropical migrant birds, arrange a stay in advance through the center's offices in Florida.