Corcovado National Park on Costa Rica's remote Osa Peninsula is a vast untouched rainforest sanctuary teeming with jaguars scarlet macaws and extraordinary biodiversity making it one of the most remarkable wildlife destinations in the entire world.
Costa Rica: Puntarenas – NATUWA Wildlife Sanctuary
🦜 A Brush with the Great Green Macaw
We had quite the experience with the Great Green Macaw — Ara ambiguus, if you want to get technical about it — at the Ara Manzanillo Project near Puerto Viejo on Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. The Great Green Macaw, once ranging across a vast swathe of Central America from Honduras down through Ecuador, has had rather a rough few centuries. Deforestation and the cage-bird trade knocked its population down to somewhere between 500 and 1,000 individuals by the late twentieth century, making it one of the most critically endangered parrots on the planet. The Ara Manzanillo lot have been quietly and brilliantly getting on with the business of helping it claw back some of that lost territory, and we came away genuinely impressed.
Now, this got us wondering. If there was such an admirable programme running on the Caribbean side, was there something similar happening for the Scarlet Macaw — Ara macao — over on the Pacific coast? The Scarlet Macaw, which looks frankly like someone let a toddler loose with a paint set on a parrot, had been essentially wiped out across large chunks of Costa Rica by the 1980s, a victim of the same old story: habitat loss, poaching, and the international pet trade. A bit of digging — the kind that involves an evening with a laptop and a glass of something restorative — turned up a wildlife sanctuary called NATUWA. Better still, it sat almost precisely on our route between Monteverde and Manuel Antonio, give or take what the map optimistically described as a slight detour.
The land around NATUWA is, to put it charitably, not what you’d call conventionally scenic. It’s mostly open, cultivated farmland — the sort of place where you find yourself wondering whether you’ve taken a wrong turning somewhere. Which made stumbling upon a wildlife sanctuary feel rather like finding a decent pub in Milton Keynes: unexpected, but very welcome. As it happens, the property itself was working agricultural land not so very long ago. And yet today it is methodically, stubbornly returning to its natural state — a proper, chaotic, glorious tropical rainforest. We found this genuinely astonishing. Given half a chance and a bit of rainfall — and Costa Rica does not stint on the rainfall — these forests come roaring back at a pace that would make your average English garden weed feel frankly inadequate. Trees and plants that would take decades to establish themselves in our damp grey corner of Europe were shooting up here like they had something to prove.
🗺️ Finding the Blessed Place
NATUWA is, we should warn you, a little tricky to find. The route winds through a couple of small villages that haven’t obviously been briefed on the concept of signage. We’re still not entirely sure how many visitors actually make it through the door on any given day — when we arrived, the entire touring party consisted of us and two other people, which gave proceedings a pleasingly exclusive feel, even if “exclusive” isn’t quite the word the sanctuary’s volunteers would use. There is no self-guided option here, which is frankly sensible given that without a guide you’d probably end up wandering into someone’s back garden. Instead, one of the dedicated volunteers — the kind of person who has clearly made life choices that prioritise macaws over salary — accompanied us throughout. Which, as it turned out, was exactly right.
The main reason we’d made the effort to find the place — dodgy signage and all — was to see the conservation work being done for the macaws. We’d come away from Ara Manzanillo knowing a fair amount about the plight of the Great Green Macaw, but the Scarlet Macaw’s story was a chapter we hadn’t yet properly read. The Scarlet Macaw occupies a slightly more comfortable position on the extinction spectrum than its Great Green cousin — it’s not teetering quite so dramatically on the edge — but comfortable is entirely the wrong word. Habitat destruction, the illegal pet trade, and the frankly baffling human compulsion to put spectacular wild birds in small cages have all taken their toll. Costa Rica’s Pacific coast population, which had largely vanished by the 1980s, has been slowly, painstakingly rebuilding itself, and NATUWA is very much part of that effort.
🥚 No Nursery Here — Just Hard Graft in the Field
What struck us about NATUWA’s approach was what they were not doing. There is no captive breeding programme for the Scarlet Macaws here — no carefully controlled pairings, no incubators, none of the laboratory-adjacent business you might expect. Instead, they’ve rolled their sleeves up and gone after the problem at source. Their work focuses on tackling the looting of wild nests — a thoroughly grim practice in which chicks are taken illegally and fed into the international pet trade, where a Scarlet Macaw chick can fetch sums that make the whole horrible enterprise rather attractive to the wrong sort of person. NATUWA works alongside local communities to install artificial nests for wild Scarlet Macaws, essentially giving the birds better, safer options for raising their young where natural nesting sites have been lost or compromised. On top of that, they’re actively involved in restoring the habitat these birds actually need to survive — because a macaw without a decent forest is like a Londoner without a Tube map: technically functional, but not really thriving.
🍩 The World’s Most Magnificent Doughnuts
The Great Green and Scarlet Macaws housed at the sanctuary live in two of the most remarkable aviaries we’d encountered anywhere on the trip. Each one holds dozens of birds, which is impressive enough in itself, but the design is what really stopped us in our tracks. The aviaries have been built in the shape of enormous doughnuts — great circular structures that allow the birds to fly continuously around the loop, building up speed and covering real distance rather than simply ricocheting off the walls of a conventional rectangular cage. Watching them go was, we have to say, genuinely mesmerising: a wheeling, shrieking, magnificently coloured procession of birds banking around the curves like feathered Formula One drivers. Beyond the aviaries, a number of macaws live freely within the sanctuary grounds, which adds a pleasingly chaotic dimension to wandering around the place — you’re never quite sure whether that flash of red and gold overhead is a scheduled encounter or just Tuesday afternoon at NATUWA.
Beyond the Great Green and Scarlet Macaws, NATUWA turned out to be home to quite a menagerie of exotic birds. Some were species you’d reasonably expect to find in Costa Rica — toucans, for instance, those gloriously absurd creatures that look as though evolution had a moment of madness and decided to attach a banana to a bird’s face. The Keel-billed Toucan is Costa Rica’s national bird, as it happens, and seeing one up close rather confirms that nature has a sense of humour.
Then things got more geographically adventurous. Sharing space with the locals were Blue and Yellow Macaws and Hyacinth Macaws — both South American species that have absolutely no business being in Central America, except that the illegal pet trade, with its customary disregard for biogeography, brought them here anyway. The Hyacinth Macaw deserves a special mention: it is the largest flying parrot in the world, native to the cerrado and pantanal regions of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, and breathtakingly beautiful in the way that only something that’s been comprehensively exploited tends to be. At its low point in the late twentieth century, roughly 10,000 had been plucked from the wild in a single decade. Cheerful stuff.
Further afield still, we found cockatoos — Australia’s contribution to the proceedings — and African Grey Parrots, which hail, as the name rather gives away, from the rainforests of West and Central Africa. The African Grey is considered one of the most intelligent birds on earth, capable of mimicking human speech with an accuracy that is either delightful or deeply unsettling depending on your disposition. They are also, consequently, among the most heavily trafficked wild birds in the world, with an estimated one million having been taken from the wild over the past half century.
Every single bird in that collection shared one thing in common: they had all been recovered from the illegal wildlife trade — a global industry worth an estimated £15 to £20 billion a year, which puts it in rather uncomfortable company alongside drugs and arms trafficking as one of the world’s most lucrative criminal enterprises. NATUWA hadn’t gone looking for an international bird collection; the international bird trade had simply deposited one on their doorstep, one confiscated animal at a time.
NATUWA is emphatically not a one-trick parrot. Alongside the macaw programme, the sanctuary serves as a permanent home for a considerable number of rescued animals who, for one reason or another, cannot be returned to the wild. This might be because they were hand-reared from infancy and have lost their fear of humans — which sounds rather sweet until you consider that a wild jungle is not especially forgiving of naivety — or because they arrived with injuries that left them permanently unable to fend for themselves. Whatever the reason, they are here, they are looked after, and they appear to be doing considerably better than they would managing on their own.
🦥 The Sloths Run the Place
The sloths, we should tell you, have essentially taken over. They have been given — or more likely have simply assumed — free rein of the entire property, which makes a certain kind of sense when you consider that a sloth’s top speed is roughly equivalent to a retired geography teacher approaching a buffet. Costa Rica is home to two species: the two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) and the three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus), both of which move through the world with a serene indifference to urgency that we found quietly inspiring. We were lucky enough to get an up-close encounter with one, hanging from a branch at eye level, regarding us with the sort of expression that suggested it had considered our presence and found it mildly beneath its dignity. Marvellous creatures.
🐒 The Full Monkey Complement
NATUWA also houses all four of Costa Rica’s indigenous monkey species, which is rather like getting the full set of something you didn’t know you were collecting. First, there is the Mantled Howler (Alouatta palliata), whose morning call — a deep, resonant, almost prehistoric roar that carries for up to three kilometres through the forest — is one of those sounds that makes you feel nature is showing off somewhat. Then the White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus), sharp-eyed, inquisitive, and clearly convinced it is the cleverest thing in any given room — which, frankly, it probably is. Next, the Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), which swings and tumbles through the canopy with an acrobatic confidence that makes your average circus performer look as though they could do with a bit more practice. And finally, the Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri oerstedii), tiny, wide-eyed and almost unreasonably appealing — the sort of animal that makes you briefly reconsider your life choices regarding pets, before you come to your senses.
Birds and primates, bless them, are essentially showing off all the time. They’re loud, they’re colourful, and they have absolutely no qualms about making themselves the centre of attention. The mammals, on the other hand, have collectively decided that the best survival strategy is to be as invisible as possible — and frankly, given what humans have been doing to their habitat over the past couple of centuries, you can’t really blame them. The larger ones in particular are either deeply, professionally shy, or they’ve simply opted to conduct their entire lives after dark, which does make a casual encounter in the forest rather unlikely.
Take the Baird’s Tapir — Tapirus bairdii — which is Central America’s largest native land mammal and looks, rather wonderfully, like evolution couldn’t quite decide whether it was making a pig or a small rhinoceros and gave up halfway through. It is also, sadly, endangered, its numbers having been hammered by deforestation and hunting across its range from Mexico down through Colombia. In Costa Rica, your chances of stumbling across one in the wild are, to put it diplomatically, not great. They’re largely nocturnal, they cover enormous territories, and they are extremely good at not being where you are looking.
Then there’s the jaguar — Panthera onca — the largest cat in the Americas and an animal that has, quite reasonably, learned to treat human beings with profound suspicion. Once ranging from the American Southwest all the way down to Argentina, the jaguar has been pushed back, shot at, and had its habitat carved up for the better part of four hundred years. Costa Rica retains one of the more significant remaining populations, but actually seeing one in the wild requires a combination of skill, patience, local knowledge, and the sort of luck that doesn’t come round very often.
Which is precisely why a visit to NATUWA might well be your one realistic opportunity to spend some proper time with both of these magnificent animals. Not through a fence at a distance, with a crowd of people jostling for position — but up close, quietly, with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. For many people, it will be the closest they ever get, and that, if you stop to think about it for a moment, is worth a slight detour off any road.
Planning your visit to NATUWA
🐆 NATUWA Wildlife Sanctuary & Rescue Center
| 📍 | Location | South of Plaza Deportes, 1km, Aranjuez, Puntarenas 60102, Costa Rica | |
| 🕖 | Opening Times | Mon–Sun: 8:00 am, 9:30 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm (guided tours) | 🌐 Website |
| 📞 | Phone | +506 8644 4666 | |
| ℹ️ | Notes | Guided tour lasts approx. 1 hr 20 mins along a 1,350 m flat trail. Booking recommended via WhatsApp or online. Guide included in entry fee. |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Adults | Children | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| $20 USD | Check with venue |
🚗 Getting There
By Car: NATUWA is located on the road to Guanacaste, 13 km from Cuatrocruces near Miramar. From San José, take the Interamerican Highway (Route 1) north-west towards Puntarenas and follow signs for Miramar/Aranjuez. Journey time from San José is approximately 1.5–2 hours. Parking is available on site.
Best Time to Visit Costa Rica’s West Coast
🌞 Dry Season (December to April)
This is the classic high season and, for most visitors, the most straightforward time to travel. Skies over Guanacaste and the Nicoya Peninsula are reliably clear, rainfall is minimal, and the Pacific Ocean tends to be calm and brilliantly blue. Temperatures sit between 28°C and 35°C, and the trade winds that blow in from the north keep the heat from becoming oppressive — particularly along the coast. Playa Tamarindo, Playa Flamingo, Playa Conchal, and Playa Nosara are all at their most photogenic during these months. The dry season also coincides with prime surfing conditions at breaks such as Witch’s Rock and Ollie’s Point, which are accessible by boat from Tamarindo and Playa del Coco. Wildlife is highly visible because animals congregate around remaining water sources. Leatherback sea turtle nesting at Playa Grande peaks between November and February, and January through March sees excellent whale-watching offshore. The trade-off is that this period is busy and expensive. Accommodation should be booked months in advance, especially over Christmas, New Year, and Semana Santa (Easter Week), when prices spike considerably and beaches become crowded.
What to pack: Lightweight, breathable clothing (linen or technical fabrics), high-SPF sun cream, a good sun hat, UV-protective sunglasses, sandals and sturdy walking shoes, a reusable water bottle, insect repellent, a light layer for air-conditioned restaurants and transfers, swimwear, a dry bag for beach days and boat trips, and any prescription medication.
🌦️ Shoulder Season / Green Season Onset (May to June)
May and June mark the start of the rainy season, but the transition is gradual and, for independent travellers, arguably the most rewarding period of the year. Rain tends to fall in concentrated afternoon or evening downpours rather than all-day grey drizzle, leaving mornings consistently bright and warm. The landscape transforms almost overnight: the brown, parched hillsides of the dry season give way to a lush, vivid green that earns this period its alternative name, the Green Season. Crowds thin out noticeably, prices drop across hotels and tour operators, and the roads are quieter. Surf conditions remain strong along the northern Nicoya coast. The warm, rain-fed rivers begin to run well, making inland excursions and wildlife spotting increasingly rewarding. May and June represent excellent value without any significant sacrifice in terms of day-to-day enjoyment.
What to pack: A quality lightweight waterproof jacket or packable poncho, quick-dry clothing, waterproof sandals or trail shoes, a dry bag, insect repellent (mosquito activity increases with the rains), sun cream, swimwear, a small travel umbrella, a portable power bank to keep devices charged during downpours, and a microfibre towel.
🌧️ Mid Rainy Season (July to August)
July and August bring an interesting anomaly known locally as the veranillo, or “little summer” — a brief dry spell that typically occurs in late July and can extend into August. For travellers who plan around this window, the experience can feel much like the dry season: clear blue skies, calm seas, and excellent beach conditions. Outside the veranillo, rainfall is heavier than in May and June, with proper thunderstorms rolling in during afternoons and evenings. Rivers run fast, waterfalls are at their most spectacular, and the rainforest canopy is at peak density. This is also one of the best periods for sport fishing offshore, and humpback whale season is in full swing from July onwards, with pods regularly spotted along the Guanacaste coast and around the Nicoya Gulf. Prices remain low, and popular spots are uncrowded. Road conditions on unpaved tracks can become challenging, and some more remote beaches may be harder to reach. That said, a 4×4 vehicle and a flexible itinerary turn what might seem like obstacles into genuine adventure.
What to pack: A robust waterproof jacket, quick-dry shirts and trousers, waterproof hiking boots or heavy-duty sandals, a dry bag for electronics and documents, insect repellent with DEET, malaria prophylaxis if venturing into forested inland areas (consult your GP), a first-aid kit, sun cream (for the veranillo and coastal days), swimwear, a headtorch, and cash (ATMs can be unreliable in remote areas).
⛈️ Peak Rainy Season (September to November)
September and October are the wettest months on the West Coast. Rainfall totals are at their highest, and there can be multi-day spells of overcast, damp weather — particularly in October, which is statistically the wettest month in Guanacaste. Tropical storms, while not guaranteed, are possible during this period and the broader Atlantic hurricane season can occasionally push systems across from the Caribbean side. That said, the West Coast of Costa Rica is far less vulnerable to hurricanes than the Caribbean coast, and many visitors find this time perfectly manageable with the right expectations. Prices are at their absolute lowest, and top-end eco-lodges that are often fully booked in December can be available at a fraction of the usual rate. The natural environment is extraordinarily alive: nesting olive ridley sea turtles arrive in mass nesting events called arribadas at Playa Ostional on the Nicoya Peninsula, and the rivers and forests teem with wildlife. November brings a gradual improvement as the rains begin to ease and the first dry-season visitors start to arrive, making it a transitional month with a pleasant mix of green landscapes and increasing sunshine.
What to pack: Full waterproofs (jacket and trousers), waterproof footwear, a dry bag, anti-malarial tablets if applicable (seek medical advice), DEET insect repellent, lightweight long-sleeved shirts and trousers for evenings and forest hikes, a portable water filter or purification tablets, a headtorch, a backup power bank, a travel insurance policy that covers weather-related disruptions, and sun cream for clear spells.
🌍 Overall Best Time to Visit
For most travellers, January to April offers the most dependable weather and the widest range of activities on Costa Rica’s West Coast, with February and March sitting at the sweet spot of excellent conditions before the Easter crowds arrive. However, those willing to embrace a little unpredictability will find remarkable rewards in the shoulder months. May to June and the veranillo of late July deliver much of the same beauty at considerably lower cost, with the added bonus of lush green scenery and far fewer fellow tourists. The true adventurer, seeking an untouched, immersive Costa Rica, might even consider October — the country at its most wild, wet, and wonderfully alive.
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