CASA ORQUIDEAS, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
Welcome to Costa Rica! Costa Rica is the homeland of two of our naturalist guides and of most of the crew. While breakfast was served and customs were cleared in Golfito, through the windows, we could admire the lush vegetation outside that draped the hillsides down to the ocean.
After breakfast, and after a two-minute ride, we arrived ashore to visit Casa Orquideas “The House of the Orchids.” A little over twenty years ago, a couple of North Americans, Trudy and Ron McAllister, were driving from the United States to their South American destination. Well, they never made it to the South! They fell in love with Costa Rica and decided to stay. They bought an old cacao plantation and transformed it into the magical place we had the opportunity to visit today. The botanical garden is covered with plants from all over the world.
The McAllisters greeted us on shore with the doors to their home wide open. The gardens are truly remarkable! All of the houseplants we all try so hard to make grow at home were there in monstrous size. We walked around the gardens with the Natural History staff and tried some fruits and even flowers we hadn’t known existed. The cocoa and sour-sop trees, the chestnut-mandibled toucans, the orchids cleverly planted in empty coconut husks, their tiny herb garden, and the long-nosed bats were just a few of the wonderful things we saw here. It was also good to have time to wander alone to smell the flowers, take pictures or just talk to the McAllisters as we sat on their porch.
Living in Casa Orquideas means there are no roads or trails, no telephone, no cable TV and no shopping malls; mail and supplies are brought in by boat. Would I be able to live here? Like this? Don’t we all wonder? And don’t we all wish we could say, “YES!?”
Welcome to Costa Rica! Costa Rica is the homeland of two of our naturalist guides and of most of the crew. While breakfast was served and customs were cleared in Golfito, through the windows, we could admire the lush vegetation outside that draped the hillsides down to the ocean.
After breakfast, and after a two-minute ride, we arrived ashore to visit Casa Orquideas “The House of the Orchids.” A little over twenty years ago, a couple of North Americans, Trudy and Ron McAllister, were driving from the United States to their South American destination. Well, they never made it to the South! They fell in love with Costa Rica and decided to stay. They bought an old cacao plantation and transformed it into the magical place we had the opportunity to visit today. The botanical garden is covered with plants from all over the world.
The McAllisters greeted us on shore with the doors to their home wide open. The gardens are truly remarkable! All of the houseplants we all try so hard to make grow at home were there in monstrous size. We walked around the gardens with the Natural History staff and tried some fruits and even flowers we hadn’t known existed. The cocoa and sour-sop trees, the chestnut-mandibled toucans, the orchids cleverly planted in empty coconut husks, their tiny herb garden, and the long-nosed bats were just a few of the wonderful things we saw here. It was also good to have time to wander alone to smell the flowers, take pictures or just talk to the McAllisters as we sat on their porch.
Living in Casa Orquideas means there are no roads or trails, no telephone, no cable TV and no shopping malls; mail and supplies are brought in by boat. Would I be able to live here? Like this? Don’t we all wonder? And don’t we all wish we could say, “YES!?”
