Los Inocentes Ranch and Santa Elena Bay, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
The Central American nation of Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces, and we are now travelling through one of the more enigmatic, all the way to the north west of the country. The province of Guanacaste has a slightly different flavour that the others, in fact its inhabitants tend to think of it as a separate entity – after all, they only joined Costa Rica by choice 150 years ago, having belonged to Nicaragua beforehand. Today was a particularly special day to visit the province, as the whole country was on holiday to celebrate the annexation of the province in question!
Guanacaste is home to what is now considered a very rare, endangered ecosystem: the semi-deciduous or tropical dry forest. Only patches remain, protected in a large national park system, the rest having fallen victim in the middle of last century to “improvement” – meaning the sacrificing of native forests to lands that could be exploited by humans. The vast majority of the lands are now flat, grassy plains known as “sabanas,” home to the Costa Rican cattle and horse ranches and their equivalent of the cowboy: the “Sabaneros.”
The name of the province comes from a huge tree native to the region, whose flattened pods coil around like ears giving rise to the native Nahuatl name of “Quauhnacatzli,” from the word “Quauitl” for tree and “Nacatzli” for ear. These spectacular legumes loom up periodically in the landscape, against the backdrop of towering volcanoes in the distance.
We disembarked in the small fishing town of Cuajiniquil, and rode a couple of coaches through the province until reaching a cattle and horse ranch named “Los Inocentes.” This ranch borders the Santa Rosa National Park and the tropical dry forest, which we explored either by horseback or tractor-pulled cart. Many of us saw not only beautiful tropical birds such as macaws, toucans and oropendula, but also spider and howler monkeys and even a three-toed sloth slowly stretching in its tree!
Once back to the farm house, we enjoyed a barbecue lunch with some local touches such as cassava fritters and maracuya juice, followed by some cooling-off time in the pool. The whole area was littered with coconut palms, and many of us had never tasted the delicious coconut milk in the younger nuts. We collected several of these, which were then expertly opened using the traditional method, a machete, by our naturalist Rafael Robles.
After a wonderful time at the ranch, we returned to the Sea Voyager, then repositioned to a calm bay where we could swim, snorkel and kayak surrounded by steep cliffs draped in luxurious, verdant growth. Truly a day to remember.
The Central American nation of Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces, and we are now travelling through one of the more enigmatic, all the way to the north west of the country. The province of Guanacaste has a slightly different flavour that the others, in fact its inhabitants tend to think of it as a separate entity – after all, they only joined Costa Rica by choice 150 years ago, having belonged to Nicaragua beforehand. Today was a particularly special day to visit the province, as the whole country was on holiday to celebrate the annexation of the province in question!
Guanacaste is home to what is now considered a very rare, endangered ecosystem: the semi-deciduous or tropical dry forest. Only patches remain, protected in a large national park system, the rest having fallen victim in the middle of last century to “improvement” – meaning the sacrificing of native forests to lands that could be exploited by humans. The vast majority of the lands are now flat, grassy plains known as “sabanas,” home to the Costa Rican cattle and horse ranches and their equivalent of the cowboy: the “Sabaneros.”
The name of the province comes from a huge tree native to the region, whose flattened pods coil around like ears giving rise to the native Nahuatl name of “Quauhnacatzli,” from the word “Quauitl” for tree and “Nacatzli” for ear. These spectacular legumes loom up periodically in the landscape, against the backdrop of towering volcanoes in the distance.
We disembarked in the small fishing town of Cuajiniquil, and rode a couple of coaches through the province until reaching a cattle and horse ranch named “Los Inocentes.” This ranch borders the Santa Rosa National Park and the tropical dry forest, which we explored either by horseback or tractor-pulled cart. Many of us saw not only beautiful tropical birds such as macaws, toucans and oropendula, but also spider and howler monkeys and even a three-toed sloth slowly stretching in its tree!
Once back to the farm house, we enjoyed a barbecue lunch with some local touches such as cassava fritters and maracuya juice, followed by some cooling-off time in the pool. The whole area was littered with coconut palms, and many of us had never tasted the delicious coconut milk in the younger nuts. We collected several of these, which were then expertly opened using the traditional method, a machete, by our naturalist Rafael Robles.
After a wonderful time at the ranch, we returned to the Sea Voyager, then repositioned to a calm bay where we could swim, snorkel and kayak surrounded by steep cliffs draped in luxurious, verdant growth. Truly a day to remember.
