Golfo Dulce, Rio Esquinas & Casa Orquideas: Costa Rica
Many different habitats are contained within the gulf, including the lowland rain forest, swamp forest, mangroves, beach and rivers. Knowing all this we started our morning explorations on our first day in Costa Rica, coming from Panama, and we went ashore to visit “Casa Orquideas”; which is a beautifully landscaped private botanical garden overlooking the turquoise water of the Pacific Ocean within Golfo Dulce. Longtime residents Ron and Trudy McAllister have created this garden during the last 25 years. We were just getting ready for our walk in the garden, when two Scarlet macaws were spotted on a tree just above us, we just could not believe it. After enjoying the beauty of these colorful birds, we started our walk, just to stop a few steps ahead due to a troop of White-face capuchin monkeys, eating the fruits of the “Zapote tree”. Among all the tropical and colorful birds spotted, the Chestnut-mandible toucans stand apart.
Through the garden we got to see the trees of the fruits that we get in the markets. Spices, Black pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, papaya, cashews, and other fruits native to this part of the world or introduced long ago, were all over the place.
Our afternoon outing took us into the nearby mangrove on the mouth of Rio Rincon, in our Zodiacs or kayaks. Every logistic detail had been planned ahead of time based on the coming high tide. Right at the mouth of the river, we got to see the five different species of mangrove trees in the area. As we traveled up river, some migratory North American shore birds were seen, including Spotted Sandpipers, Little blue Herons and Snowy Egrets among others. But the highlights were the Tree-Boa snakes spotted up in the trees and the spectacular Whale Shark that approach the National Geographic Sea Lion.
All this in our first day in Costa Rica, and more to come!
