Let’s be honest: Costa Rica has no shortage of places of incredible beauty. This one, sitting in the north of the country along the border with Nicaragua, slips below most radars. But the Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve – and the Frio River in particular – offers some of the best bird spotting in the country, along with other fun animal encounters.

Cano Negro protects about 25,000 acres of land. Centered on Lake Cano Negro and the Frío River, it is not a national park, as so many of the top destinations in Costa Rica are. That means the area serves three purposes: tourism (although it is fairly sparse compared to other places), wildlife protection, and usage for locals, especially those fishing. A visit requires a long drive north until one can basically see Nicaragua, which itself is an interesting aspect.

Relations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua are not the best, and haven’t been for years. Nicaraguans make up the largest immigrant group in Costa Rica, largely doing manual labor (such as working the vast pineapple plantations here in the north of the country) for significantly more money than they would make even as educated professionals back home. (Nicaragua is second only to Haiti in having the lowest per capita income in Latin America.) But those immigrants are enamored by the level of freedom in Costa Rica, in addition to the higher wages, and the chance to escape the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega. That creates friction.

And even at the state level, Costa Rica sued – successfully – Nicaragua in the International Court of Justice in 2010 over Nicaragua’s trying to construct a canal in border areas. Another lawsuit in 2016 was again won by Costa Rica.

So while the Frio River flows into Nicaragua, crossing the border is not advisable.

This part of Costa Rica is flat, with large commercial plantations (mainly pineapple and sugar cane) being the predominant features, and the drive to the border town of Los Chiles passes those, not the prettiest of journeys. But upon arrival, one steps onto a guided boat and is transported.

A Cano Negro boat tour consists of two portions: first is the wetlands that turns part of the Frio River into a vast marsh more than a narrow waterway, one that is home to a large number of migratory and full-time waterfowl. Second is the more river-esque portion that flows toward the border. Both are shared with other tour boats and canoes holding locals fishing. And both are shared with a huge abundance of life.

While the area has larger mammal species like tapirs and even jaguars, as far as mammal life goes, the most likely encounters will be with monkeys. Howler monkeys can be heard well before they are seen (the calls of the males sound like a cross between a dog’s bark and a lion’s roar). But the highlights are the white-faced capuchins who venture all the way down to the water in search of food. (They are omnivores and love to catch a slow moving lizard sunning on a log.)

The most common lizard I saw was the green basilisk, also called the Jesus Christ lizard for its ability to run across the surface of the water with its powerful hind legs. But huge iguanas were also in evidence.

The iguanas are currently mating, so males take on an orange-brown color to show their virility. They are quite a sight, and quite large.

The area also plays home to crocodiles and caimans, though I only see the latter. Caimans are related closely to the American alligator, though considerably smaller.

But one really comes to Cano Negro for the bird watching. Costa Rica has more than 900 species of birds, and by our guide’s count, we saw more than 30 of those in just a couple hours touring a tiny portion of the reserve. Cormorants were easy to spot, perched along the water on the branches of dead trees, or floating merrily past the boat.

Likewise, blue herons were a relatively common sighting, wading in the shallows.

But so many types of kingfisher, egret, and others whose names I didn’t catch (the black birds with bright yellow tails were stunners who wouldn’t hold still to get their photos taken) crossed our boat’s pass, and our captain/guide David was absolutely brilliant in spotting them hidden in upper branches and maneuvering the boat to get better views.

Cano Negro was established in 1984, and in 1991 joined the Ramsar Convention that helps to protect wetland areas around the world. As of this year, Ramsar areas protect just over 1 million square miles of this rapidly declining – and incredibly important – ecosystem across just over 2500 sites worldwide.

When most people think of Costa Rica, they think of stunning coastlines, volcanic mountains, and thick rainforests. And the country has all those things. But there is so much more, like the wetlands of Cano Negro and the Frio River.

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