Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
A new country and a new adventure waiting for us. Sometime last night we crossed the invisible line that divides Panama from Costa Rica at the very tip of Punta Burica and entered the magnificent Golfo Dulce – which translates into English as the Sweet Gulf. Rainfall is heavy in southwestern Costa Rica, almost 196 inches a year (4,976mm), and temperatures are warm, an average of 82°F (28°C). This combination creates a marvelous tropical wet forest where mosses, lichens, bromeliads, orchids, palms, many species of trees and heliconias create a genuine greenhouse. Heliconias display their showy red, orange and yellow bracts, vibrant against the greens of the understory; pollinated by hummingbirds these flowers are the personification of the exotic plants we love and associate with the tropical forests. Why can’t I grow them at home like these? Because we don’t have the optimal conditions the rain forest offers.
Today we began our Costa Rican Christmas Eve day visiting Ron and Trudy McAllister, two American expatriates who decided to make their home in this vast, lush, and endlessly green land. For the past 28 years, Ron and Trudy have planted, planned and weeded 7 acres of their 70 acre property to create one of the best kept Botanical Gardens – called Casa Orquidea – in the region. Covered in palms, fig, mango and lemon trees, bromeliads, ferns, orchids, heliconias, annatto, and innumerable numbers of plants, this garden offers all visitors an never ending source of photographs and memories. We were welcomed by our human hosts as well as by our non-human hosts as groups of macaws, toucans and tanagers opened their arms to allow us into their realm. After we had had our share of flowers, birds and even the sighting of a bird-eating snake, we went back on board to reposition our ship into the smaller bay of Golfito.
During the afternoon, we took Zodiac or kayak cruises around the Golfito area. Both activities were remunerated with sightings of herons, egrets, sandpipers, ruddy-turnstones, white throated capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys and even a tropical tree boa. The sky was grayish blue as the sun started setting in the horizon and we began settling into our comfortable evening garments, while waiting for our recap session of the day. We began our long navigation to our next destination soothingly rocked to sleep, waiting for a tropical Christmas Day.
