Golfo Dulce
We spent several great days in Panama. After we left the canal we have been snorkeling and visiting beautiful islands, but the photo expeditioners were ready for a day of heavy duty photo shooting…
Last night our Expedition Leader announced that for our fist day in Costa Rica. The first stop was going to be in a botanical garden in the middle of the rain forest, a place full of flowers, textures, shapes and wildlife. The eyes of all the photographers and non photographers went wide open. All night their minds were full of expectations, apertures, ISOs, F stops and white balances.
True enough, next morning all you could see were lenses, tripods and cameras, we had a well geared up troop waiting to get off the Zodiacs to “Aim and Shoot”. The visit to the garden of Casa Orquidea was a great success, as many plants where in bloom including the mystical One Day Orchid with flowers that only last one day, and the Heliconias as usual were being captures with big lenses.
The birds were incredible, Toucans in the trees and Scarlet Macaws in flight and in a corner of the garden there was some ripe bananas placed in front of a corridor were photographers could sit comfortably and the show of colors began: The Red-legged Honey-creeper with light blue and cobalt blue, the Cherri’s Tanager a black bird with a bright red back, the Spotted-crowned Euphonia with bright yellow and blue, the Green Honey-creeper with emerald green and many more.
In the afternoon, we repositioned the National Geographic Sea Lion to “Rio Esquinas” where we did two rounds of Zodiac cruises though a mangrove forest admiring the conspicuous root systems and looking for wildlife. Along the ride we found many birds including herons, kingfishers, egrets, Ospreys and Ibis. The highlight of the ride was a tree boa found in an overhead branch not too far from the water.
After all the activities, the lounge was very quiet and full of computers because very heavy duty editing was occurring and you could see the smiles in the faces of the ones editing for a successful day… We love it when people have fun!
