Merry Christmas! We made it to Costa Rica as the sun was rising this morning and some of us who were making our way up the stairs to experience this beautiful hour of the day found ourselves in a beautiful bay called Golfito, completely surrounded by hills covered with tropical rain forest and a little town nestled at the foothills.
After breakfast we got in the Zodiacs for a short ride to shore and found an incredible botanical garden in the middle of the rain forest with no road connections; you can only get there by boat. As soon as we stepped out of the boats, three scarlet macaws welcomed us to paradise. They were sitting on a palm not too far from us and we got our first pictures of this amazing bird.
As we started our walk, it was overwhelming, with birds calling and flying all over, flowers of every color and often we did not know if that bright thing on the bush was a tropical bird or a tropical flower! Cameras were steaming from so many photos and our brains could not think of anything outside of this garden. Many of us decided to swim back to the ship to cool off after the walk and many more joined in the water from the ship.
The afternoon was also full of action. A good number of people explored the mangrove forest and the shore by kayak, in an attempt to silently approach nature; others by Zodiac, spotting may different species of birds such as ibis, egrets, macaws, parrots, kingfishers and more. And, of course, the monkeys jumping from tree to tree provided a big show for some of the boats.
In the evening we drank wine and had a very special dinner to celebrate not only the season but the great success of another incredible day in paradise.
