Suzette's Tortuga Nest

Text Box: Gandoca Village is accessible by one small dirt road and could be considered a fairly isolated location. Unlike other Caribbean coastal communities, which are typically populated by English-speaking Afro-Caribbean's, Gandoca is mainly Hispanic. The people are mostly immigrants or the children of immigrants from other regions of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras and El Salvador.

Text Box: Gandoca beach is a black sand beach extending 5.5 miles from Monkey point to the Sixaola river which forms the border with Panama. The beach is a high energy beach with a medium to steep slope. Due to long shore currents, storm waves and high spring tides, the brim is poorly developed and the shape of the beach is constantly changing throughout the season.

Text Box: Gandoca Lagoon Has the only surviving Red Mangrove in Costa Rica. As well as protecting the mangrove, the lagoon is home to many different species of wildlife including crabs, shrimps, tarpon, crocodiles and manatees and plays a very important role in the marine food chain.

Gandoca/Manzanillo
National Wildlife
Refuge

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Gandoca / Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge
Was established in 1985 and covers 4,436 hectares of marine area and 5,000 hectares of protected land. It was established to protect both flora (turtle and manatee sea grass beds, mangrove swamp and primary forest) and fauna (coral, 3 species of monkey, sloth crocodiles, manatees, dolphin and 358 species of bird) as well as protecting the nesting beach used by the Leatherback turtle and to a lesser extent the Green and Hawksbill turtles.