Ostional Wildlife Refuge

Ostional Wildlife Reserve is a small and narrow coastal reserve of 180 acres that includes the Ostional Beach, Nosara Beach, Nosara River, and Nosara Village. Ostional Wildlife Reserve was founded to protect the olive ridley sea turtles, locally known as the Lora Turtle, which nests annually on Ostional Beach. The most important beaches in Costa Rica for the nesting of the olive ridley sea turtle are Ostional Beach at Ostional Wildlife Reserve and Nancite Beach at Santa Rosa National Park. Actually, these two beaches are considered to be one of the largest nesting sites worldwide. Large groups of hundreds olive ridley turtles arrive to Ostional Beach from the months of July to November. August, September, and October are said to be the best months to see the largest amounts of olive ridley sea turtles nesting. Smaller numbers of these sea turtles can be seen almost every night during the nesting season, but usually large amounts (as much as 500 000 were recorded in 1995) arrive on the last quarter of the moon cycle. Leatherback turtles and Pacific green turtles also nest at Ostional Beach just that in a much smaller scale that the ridley sea turtle.

The other attraction of Ostional Wildlife Refuge is birding. There is some good birding on the mangrove swamp on the southeast end of Ostional Wildlife Refuge where the mouth of Nosara River is. All around the Ostional Wildlife Refuge iguanas, crabs, howler monkeys, and coatis can be sighted. There are some interesting marine creatures on the tide pools on the northwest end of Ostional Wildlife Refuge such as anemones, fish-fish, sea urchins, starfish, and shellfish, making the tide pools a nice spot for snorkeling. Over the shores of Ostional Wildlife Refuge a variety of lizards, bright red crabs, and transparent ghost crabs inundate the beach. The vegetation at Ostional Wildlife Refuge is not as abundant as in most of Costa Rica wildlife refuges and national parks, what you will mostly encounter at Ostional is a deciduous scarce habitat of frangipani and stands of cacti behind the shores.

Expect a good amount of rain during the rainy season, which is also the best time of the year to sight the turtle nesting, and hot weather with average temperatures of 82 F during day time. There are very strong currents on both of Ostional Wildlife Refuge beaches, so swimming is not recommended here.

Turtle eggs have been part of the diet of the Caribbean inhabitants of the Limon Province since the coastal town was established centuries ago. Of course the increase in the population and uncontrolled egg harvesting has put the survival of the turtles in jeopardy. Luckily a group of witty conservationist came out with a great harmonious solution. Harvesting is allowed during the first three days of nesting and approximately 200 turtles eggs are allowed to be collected by each family of the area. In this way, harvesting was not totally banned, which usually always leads to surreptitious harvesting, and turtles are still protected. This measure also makes sense from a practical and biological way as usually the first laid eggs are crushed by proceeding nestings.

Now, you are probably wonder how to get to Ostional Wildlife Refuge. Well, you can either drive from Nosara or Juanillo or you can take a local flight from the International San Jose Airport to the local airport of Nosara. If you have a chance to visit Ostional Wildlife Refuge do not miss the opportunity to see the nesting of the amazing olive ridley turtles.