Costa Rica, Golfo Dulce

What a surprise we had when we came out of our cabins this morning. After cruising all night from Panama, we found ourselves docked in a little town called Golfito in Costa Rica. This port town has a gorgeous setting: lush, forested hills surrounding a deep bay on the Golfo Dulce with the misty outline on the Peninsula de Osa in the distance.

Right after an early breakfast, we boarded our Zodiacs to explore the nearby mangrove forest and rainforest, while our captain was cleared immigration, since this is our gateway to Costa Rica. On the pristine mangrove forest, we saw the four different species of mangrove. Ruddy turnstone, sandwich terns, snowy egrets and spotted sandpiper were among the birds spotted in the mangroves. Later on, we moved the Zodiacs to the edges of rainforest. To our surprise howler monkeys were spotted up in the trees. As we were looking at them, a Scarlet macaw flew above us. We returned to the National Geographic Sea Lion, happy from our Zodiac cruises in the protected ecosystems of Golfito.

After lunch, we had a well deserved siesta. Later, we went ashore to visit “Casa Orquideas”, 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. In a matter of two hours, we saw what the spices and fruits in our kitchens look like on vines and trees. We even had the opportunity to taste the ones in season. Among some of them we saw ginger, vanilla, black pepper, cinnamon, cacao, cashew, mango, avocado, papaya and other fruits used by the natives to dye cloth in the past. They were able to produce bright orange colors among others. Suddenly, Gustavo one of the Naturalists spotted toucans in large numbers. While we all went to see them, a laughing falcon with its kill (a large snake) was spotted up in a tree nearby. We were very excited and took many pictures of this amazing discovery.

All this happened on our first day in Costa Rica. What a way for a country to welcome us!