Marino Ballena National Park

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Marino Ballena National Park
Uvita is a small village with 2 incredibly long and incredibly wide beaches (Playa Hermosa and Playa Uvita) separated by a peninsula looking like whale's tail, but it's a gatekeeper to Marino Ballena National Park. Whale's tale is there for a good reason: this is the place where you can go for a whale and dolphin watching tour.

We did this one with our friends: Whale & Dolphin Tour (Combination Tour). It starts at 8:30 and by noon you are back, $90 per person feels a bit overpriced but they did show us some dolphins, a whale (shared with other boat), jumping tunas, pelicans and even a dead turtle. It was not easy - the boat was screwing back and forth all over the Bahia Ballena for 2 hours looking for wildlife, and just to compensate for all that burned fuel the price doesn't seem unreasonable.

The last part of the tour was amazing - all those rocks with caves you cannot see from the land, you have to be on a boat.

The combination tour also announces snorkeling but don't take it seriously: they just stop by some rock in the middle of the ocean for 15 minutes, there are indeed some nice colored fishes there but before you can catch and fry one they ask you to climb to the boat and go back. Our friends counted on that "snorkeling" and were very disappointed, even lost a snorkel. If you find it there please let us know. Later we did actually see people with snorkeling equipment walking on Uvita beach and heading to the very end of the whale's tail (it has to be low tide to get there) and I believe there is indeed not bad snorkeling there, but to be honest we did not check it out. If you try please share your opinion.

  
Location: Uvita, 60504, Costa Rica

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