San Pedrillo & Caletas

The forest teaches us many lessons, but above all, a very important one for a happy life: we should enjoy every moment as it comes, without anxiety or expectations, which only cause stress. It is the here and the now!

Walking through a primary forest where only about 3% of the sunlight reaches the ground, where every tree is in a race to reach the sun, only that privilege of a few is a highlight in itself. If we close our eyes and listen, then it is another miracle. Myriads of sounds, from birds, from insects, from mammals, from the leaves in the high canopy, more than a hundred feet from our eyes. We know they are there, but why do we have to see it all? The other senses count as well. We smell the forest, we taste it, we hear it, and of course, we see its beauty in every leaf, designed to survive, either getting rid of the excess of water, or avoiding fungi, or who knows what else. There is beauty in the shallow root system and in the lianas and vines, and in the ficus trees that drop their fruits to the soil. Anxiety has to be left behind when you enter a forest in order to enjoy its real essence, which is not the individual species, but the complexity and interrelationship of them all; thousands of them, some that we have not named yet, that are waiting to be discovered.

But as we were good with the forest, the forest was especially generous with us today. In the morning we saw some of its mammals, spider monkeys and Coatis, we saw its butterflies and we saw some of its reptiles, like the San Pedrillo annelid, which got the name from this beautiful Costa Rican site, in Corcovado National Park. In the afternoon we had Howler monkeys and white face capuchin monkeys, and the options of horse back riding or walking through the forest or along the shoreline. I can only feel fortunate for having had such a superb day, and for the joy of sharing it with wonderful people, our guests on board, and you all in the Lindblad world.