Waking up in the calm waters of Golfo Dulce was an introduction to the beautiful morning that was about to start.
Before the sun started warming up, we headed out towards Casa Orquideas. Owned by our wonderful hosts, Trudy and Ron McAllister, this spectacular place has a series of easy walking paths that took us through a fantasy world of flowers, tropical fruits and exotic plants.
The combination of the flora and the lush rain forest as a backyard of this botanical garden provided the conditions for a habitat that attracts several species of colorful birds: black crowned tityras, long billed hummingbirds and cherrie’s tanagers showing their bright red rump. Along with them were iridescent green honeycreepers, golden hooded tanagers and the red, blue and yellow scarlet macaws in flight. These birds painted the morning to finish the first half of our day’s activities with some swimming and paddle boarding at this pool-like calm waters.
Known as one of four tropical environments in the world resembling the conditions of fjords but obviously carved under different phenomenon, its amazing landscape has been shaped by a unique geological condition: a structural control performed by a system of local faults and tectonic plate action. As a result, a gulf of considerable depth, reaches up to 200 meters (over 675 ft.) in the inner part and 70 meters (230 feet) towards the mouth of the gulf into the Pacific Ocean.
National Geographic Sea Lion was repositioned to Rio Tigre mangroves, still within the gulf.
Protected by an international treaty to preserve the wet lands, mangroves are an association of plants that tolerate high concentrations of salt, creating an almost unreal surrounding. We explored the mangroves by expedition landing crafts, some guest paddling as we immersed ourselves in this magical world. We admired the trees’ physiognomic characteristics such as developing aerial roots, for gas exchange, all in the company of a two toed sloth who showed up at eye level to confirm the success of our explorations.
I offered a history lesson summarizing the reasons why Costa Rica is an oasis of peace in Latin America for last day in this country, preparing us to discover the beauty of Panama.
