Sharks, turtles, and crabs! The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has a marine research station that occupies former military bunkers atop rocky Punta Culebra.

Marine Exhibition Centre is an open-air museum with six aquariums dedicated to marine coastal environments. One aquarium displays species of the Pacific, while Caribbean species inhabit another.

Two trails meander through a rare patch of Pacific tropical dry forest, a Central American ecosystem that is almost extinct today. Iguanas abound. And the forest is a refuge for armadillos and birds of all kinds.