Uvita

“Worth coming mid-week”

Uvita is the access point for Marino Ballena National Park, whose central feature is a tombolito — a sandbar that connects the mainland beach to a small island and, at low tide, emerges in a shape that from the air resembles a whale's tail. The geometry is not dramatic at sea level but is unmistakeable from the hill above the beach or in aerial photography. Between August and October, humpback whales from both the northern and southern Pacific arrive in the protected gulf to give birth and nurse calves before the southbound migration — an unusual double humpback season that makes Ballena one of the more significant whale nurseries on the Pacific coast of the Americas. Dolphin pods work the calmer waters inside the whale tail year-round. The beach itself is wide and dark-sand, the surf moderate, the facilities minimal. Boat tours leave from the ranger station dock at the northern end of the park.