New day, new country!
Last night we entered Costa Rica from Panama, and dawn found National Geographic Sea Lion already attached to the rusty dock of the lethargic little town of Golfito (meaning in Spanish, “little bay”) for the immigration paperwork (all done, behind scenes by Cassidy, our super-efficient purser.
After officially checking into Costa Rica, we repositioned deep inside the bay to visit the estuary of the Tigre River. There we explored by kayak or expedition landing craft the important mangrove forest ecosystem. At Tigre River we had saw great views of some very interesting birds, such as the common and great potoos, nocturnal birds related with nighthawks that though not rare, are hard to spot due to their exceptional capacity to blend in with the trees where they perch. In fact, these potoos look like a part of the tree while resting throughout the day. We were also excited to see a reddish egret this morning, which is a very unusual bird to find down here.
Once back onboard and before our delicious lunch, we had a wonderful presentation about chocolate produced by a local chocolate farmer, with tastings included
For the afternoon we repositioned to the other side of the bay, to visit Casa Orquideas botanical garden. Upon disembarkation we were greeted by the owners and creators of this incredible place, Ron and Trudy McAllister. Casa Orquideas is truly a showcase of the diversity of the tropics. During the last 37 years of living in this remote area of Costa Rica, the McAllisters have created quite an exhibit. We had something for everybody: flowers of all colors, leaves of all sizes and shapes, fruits and spices from the tropics of all over the world to taste and smell. On top of all this, we were delighted by the visit of many of the birds from the adjacent and surrounding primary forest.
