Caño Negro Wild Life Refuge

Located near the Nicaraguan border in a marshy, jungle-like area, the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place to visit while staying in Costa Rica to get a sense of the expansive habitat and ecosystem that evolves in that important part of Central America.  

A float trip down the flooded Rio Frio doesn’t actually place you inside the wild life refuge but it gives the nature enthusiast access to all the birds, animals, reptiles and monkeys which are found within the actual sanctuary, as they inhabit the banks and canyons along the river.  

The little village of Los Chiles, about 2 miles from the Nicaraguan border, is about 2 hours’ drive from La Fortuna, located in the Arenal Volcano area.   The road to Los Chiles is hard-paved but once you get to the turnoff at the Immigration checkpoint, be prepared for a wash-board ride on a bumpy gravel road.  For about 20 minutes, as we slowly jostled along the road, we passed flooded marshland which held the occasional herd of cattle and the requisite flocks of egrets hanging about.  When we arrived at the river, there was a little restaurant where there were two river boats tied waiting for passengers. 

During our tour in late December, the rainy season had not stopped and the banks of the Rio Frio were overflowing into the lowlands.  The current of the river was rather swift and several times during the float, the heavens opened with a rain shower reminding me that the first word in “rainforest” is “rain.”

The boat captain and the guide were extremely knowledgeable and diligent as they searched along the banks for interesting birds or animals.  Here are just a few which they found:

The large iguanas were perched up in the trees sunning themselves whenever there was  break in the clouds.

We saw the tree species of monkeys along the banks of the Rio Frio:  Howler (1st image), the spider, and then the white-faced monkey (image 2 and 3).   The last image is of the two deciding to "attack" the boat when they realized we were sitting there observing.  Gave everyone a "cheap" thrill!

Or should I say a "scare" because of the amount of noise they made and their sudden aggression.

And of course the birds were plentiful along the swollen banks of the river.  Their plumage and beauty was breath-taking.

The Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge is a "must see" if you are in the area while enjoying a vacation to the Arenal Volcano area.