Rancho Los Inocentes and Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica
Today we left the coast behind and ventured inland. The Sea Voyager dropped anchor in front of a small fishing village in the Guanacaste province. Two buses were waiting to take us to our destination: a spectacular horse ranch stretching over many acres of relatively pristine forest and savannahs. On our way to this working ranch, we drove across the huge protected area of tropical dry forest preserve maintained by Costa Rica. This is so important that UNESCO has declared the preserve a World Heritage Site. Since colonial times, Guanacaste has been quite autonomous from its neighbors: its sizeable indigenous population and geographic isolation contributed to make it a unique province in Costa Rica. Many of the Costa Rican traditions originated here. This is cowboy country, and cowboys here are known as “sabaneros” which means the people that live on the savannah.
We went horse back riding and also on a cart pulled by a tractor. Both expeditions were an excellent way to explore this transitional ecosystem located between the tropical dry forest of the Pacific slope and the tropical rain forest of the Caribbean coast, which lies just behind the Orosí Volcano. This gave us the opportunity to see animals from both ecosystems: spider monkeys, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, keel billed toucans, among a lot of tropical birds and colorful butterflies.
Once back in the ranch house, we had a barbecue lunch followed by a swim in the pool. Then back on board, the ship sailed down to Santa Elena Bay where we did some kayaking, snorkeling, and Zodiac cruises along the coast line. More wildlife was spotted: tuna fish and tropical fish by the snorkelers, mangrove hawks hunting crabs by the kayakers, and manta rays by the Zodiac cruisers. What a great place to end a very good day in the quiet Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.
Today we left the coast behind and ventured inland. The Sea Voyager dropped anchor in front of a small fishing village in the Guanacaste province. Two buses were waiting to take us to our destination: a spectacular horse ranch stretching over many acres of relatively pristine forest and savannahs. On our way to this working ranch, we drove across the huge protected area of tropical dry forest preserve maintained by Costa Rica. This is so important that UNESCO has declared the preserve a World Heritage Site. Since colonial times, Guanacaste has been quite autonomous from its neighbors: its sizeable indigenous population and geographic isolation contributed to make it a unique province in Costa Rica. Many of the Costa Rican traditions originated here. This is cowboy country, and cowboys here are known as “sabaneros” which means the people that live on the savannah.
We went horse back riding and also on a cart pulled by a tractor. Both expeditions were an excellent way to explore this transitional ecosystem located between the tropical dry forest of the Pacific slope and the tropical rain forest of the Caribbean coast, which lies just behind the Orosí Volcano. This gave us the opportunity to see animals from both ecosystems: spider monkeys, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, keel billed toucans, among a lot of tropical birds and colorful butterflies.
Once back in the ranch house, we had a barbecue lunch followed by a swim in the pool. Then back on board, the ship sailed down to Santa Elena Bay where we did some kayaking, snorkeling, and Zodiac cruises along the coast line. More wildlife was spotted: tuna fish and tropical fish by the snorkelers, mangrove hawks hunting crabs by the kayakers, and manta rays by the Zodiac cruisers. What a great place to end a very good day in the quiet Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.
