Texto & Foto: Douglas Trent
San Josecito is a community in Uvita; it is located on Peninsula de Osa, and has the highest potential for bird watching tourism in Costa Rica.
The forests and parks of San Josecito region, host birds and other animals are now starting to generate income for two extended families that have been in the region for over 50 years. A recent international nature guide training
program has given them a boost.
From March 1st – 19th Douglas Trent, an American living and working in Brazil, who, together with Jussara Utsch, President of Instituto Sustentar (a leading NGO in Brazil), gave a broad pro-bono course that included the importance of having a business plan, transparency and ethics, marketing strategies, and extensive field experience, to sharpen guiding techniques to help visitors to watch the incredible creatures that live in these lands. This course was sponsored by Claudia Alderman, a specialist in natural resource’s management, recently retired from the World Bank and living during part of the year in San Josecito.
The rainforests on their properties host a great number of birds regularly seen, including White Hawk, King Vulture, at least nine hummingbird species, including the endemic White-crested Coquette, the multicolored Golden-hooded and many other tanagers, trogons, toucans, woodpeckers and so many other birds. Four species of monkeys can be found in the region, as well as anteaters, weasels and other mammals.
For those wishing to see owls and other nocturnal creatures, now they are offering guides who are ready and available during daily hours, as well as in the night there in highlands of San Gerardo de Dota, where you can watch the resplendent Quetzal and other birds of the cloud forests or spend a couple of days in the Osa Peninsula.