A new day brings new adventures and today also we entered a new country. Before sunrise, National Geographic Sea Lion made its first stop at Golfito in Costa Rica. After clearing customs, we sailed towards Casa Orquideas, a botanical garden owned by Trudy and Ron McAllister, a couple of expatriates who have been living and working in Casa Orquideas for 34 years. Thousands of plant species distributed around the garden are not only from native areas but also from many other tropics of the world. They have a wide variety of samples of many families, from palms to medicinal herbs.
The McAllister’s themselves greeted our guests while disembarking and the walk began, focused on various interests that ranged from photography to plants and birds. There were macaws flying over our heads and chestnut-mandibled toucans perching next to cocoa trees – which, by the way, were in production. Many birds were found near the owners’ house and some guests even stopped by the little shop at the end of the tour to talk to Ron and Trudy about this paradise of tropical flowers.
Later, after lunch, our vessel lifted anchor and repositioned towards Esquinas, a river in Piedras Blancas National Park. There some of our guests wanted to explore the Esquinas mangroves by kayak while others preferred to do see it from our expedition landing crafts. Mangroves in Costa Rica are protected areas that happen to play an important role as a coastal nursery habitat. As a matter of fact, it happens to be the second most productive ecosystem after the coral reef.
There was a third group of guests who explored the edges of the mangrove from the inland perspective. Saladero, a privately owned land, offers the proper conditions for such an experience. They saw a fer-de-lance, red-lored parrots and some other birds.
The day ended by returning to the vessel and after lifting the anchor, Sea Lion repositioned to Golfito where we enjoyed dinner in the calm waters of the inner side of Golfo Dulce.
