Casa Orquideas & Rincon River
During the small hours of the morning, the Sea Voyager entered the Golfo Dulce or Sweet Water Gulf, a beautiful tropical Fjord surrounded by lush rain forest. As it was our first day in Costa Rica, we needed to clear customs, after that, the ship was repositioned in front of the first outing of the day. Casa Orquideas, literally translated into the orchid’s house, is so much more than that. It is owned by a couple of expatriates from USA, Ron and Trudy MacAllister, that arrived to Costa Rica around 25 years ago and have been transforming their property into an exquisite array of orchids, bromeliads, hibiscus, palms trees, fruit trees etc. We walked through the garden for a couple of hours accompanied by our naturalist which were pointing out several plants, flowers, fruits, medicinal plants, and birds as well. It is really impressive how many products come from the rainforest of the Neotropics: vanilla, cocoa, aloe, as well as pineapples and papayas of which an enzyme is extracted to be used as a meat-tenderizing product.
After the enriching experience, the younger adventurers on board decided to take a chance on the banana boat, which is an inflatable device that resembles a big banana that gets pulled by a Zodiac, but regardless of how it sounds, it was a blast!
Even when all that sounds like enough activity for a day, that was just the morning. We still had a whole afternoon. The later activities required repositioning the ship towards the northwestern corner of the gulf to a river named Rincon. The mouth of this river is forested with mangroves. Mangroves are very important ecosystems which serve as babysitters for several species of fish, crabs, shrimps, lobster etc., which means that a healthy mangrove forest will keep a healthy fish life in the ocean, on which many could people depend on to make a living. The term mangrove is not a taxonomic classification like “oaks” or “maples,” it just means that several plant species have adapted to live in brackish water with poor-oxygen soils. Mangroves are good spotting grounds for aquatic birds like herons, egrets, roseate-spoonbills, whimbrels, sandpipers, kingfishers and every now and then some mammals or reptiles. Today we had the chance to see a sloth, a caiman, and an iguana.
Everybody was back on board for cocktail hour and a stunning sunset. What a great day to welcome us to Costa Rica!
During the small hours of the morning, the Sea Voyager entered the Golfo Dulce or Sweet Water Gulf, a beautiful tropical Fjord surrounded by lush rain forest. As it was our first day in Costa Rica, we needed to clear customs, after that, the ship was repositioned in front of the first outing of the day. Casa Orquideas, literally translated into the orchid’s house, is so much more than that. It is owned by a couple of expatriates from USA, Ron and Trudy MacAllister, that arrived to Costa Rica around 25 years ago and have been transforming their property into an exquisite array of orchids, bromeliads, hibiscus, palms trees, fruit trees etc. We walked through the garden for a couple of hours accompanied by our naturalist which were pointing out several plants, flowers, fruits, medicinal plants, and birds as well. It is really impressive how many products come from the rainforest of the Neotropics: vanilla, cocoa, aloe, as well as pineapples and papayas of which an enzyme is extracted to be used as a meat-tenderizing product.
After the enriching experience, the younger adventurers on board decided to take a chance on the banana boat, which is an inflatable device that resembles a big banana that gets pulled by a Zodiac, but regardless of how it sounds, it was a blast!
Even when all that sounds like enough activity for a day, that was just the morning. We still had a whole afternoon. The later activities required repositioning the ship towards the northwestern corner of the gulf to a river named Rincon. The mouth of this river is forested with mangroves. Mangroves are very important ecosystems which serve as babysitters for several species of fish, crabs, shrimps, lobster etc., which means that a healthy mangrove forest will keep a healthy fish life in the ocean, on which many could people depend on to make a living. The term mangrove is not a taxonomic classification like “oaks” or “maples,” it just means that several plant species have adapted to live in brackish water with poor-oxygen soils. Mangroves are good spotting grounds for aquatic birds like herons, egrets, roseate-spoonbills, whimbrels, sandpipers, kingfishers and every now and then some mammals or reptiles. Today we had the chance to see a sloth, a caiman, and an iguana.
Everybody was back on board for cocktail hour and a stunning sunset. What a great day to welcome us to Costa Rica!
