Golfo Dulce, Casa Orquideas Botanical Garden
Today we had a beautiful sunrise at Golfo Dulce which is like the Monterey Bay of Costa Rica, because there is a trench or canyon that runs through the center of the bay which is about one mile deep. Because there is a narrow entrance to the bay its waters are very calm like a pond or a lake. Many cetaceans come here to deliver their babies, like pilot whales and spotted dolphins.
In the morning we visited Casa Orquideas which is a botanical garden that the McCallister family started twenty three years ago. They have a wonderful collection of tropical plants from all over the world. We admired a great collection of heliconias in bloom, bromeliads, arums, palms, cycads, fruit trees, orchids and a lot of birds that come to their garden. It’s a fantastic place for plant lovers. Walking around the gardens you realize how much domestication of ornamentals has been done by humans almost as much as vegetables or fruits in the last few decades.
In the afternoon at Golfo Dulce we cruised to Rincon which is one of the largest mangrove swamps protected in the area. We had a chance to explore this fascinating ecosystem either by boat or by kayak. Among some of the things that we saw were roseate spoonbills, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones, mangrove hawks, bare-throated tiger-herons, Northern jacanas, egrets, and white ibis. It was like time stopped moving through the tangled roots of the mangrove trees. Imagine a Jurassic epoch.
Today we had a beautiful sunrise at Golfo Dulce which is like the Monterey Bay of Costa Rica, because there is a trench or canyon that runs through the center of the bay which is about one mile deep. Because there is a narrow entrance to the bay its waters are very calm like a pond or a lake. Many cetaceans come here to deliver their babies, like pilot whales and spotted dolphins.
In the morning we visited Casa Orquideas which is a botanical garden that the McCallister family started twenty three years ago. They have a wonderful collection of tropical plants from all over the world. We admired a great collection of heliconias in bloom, bromeliads, arums, palms, cycads, fruit trees, orchids and a lot of birds that come to their garden. It’s a fantastic place for plant lovers. Walking around the gardens you realize how much domestication of ornamentals has been done by humans almost as much as vegetables or fruits in the last few decades.
In the afternoon at Golfo Dulce we cruised to Rincon which is one of the largest mangrove swamps protected in the area. We had a chance to explore this fascinating ecosystem either by boat or by kayak. Among some of the things that we saw were roseate spoonbills, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones, mangrove hawks, bare-throated tiger-herons, Northern jacanas, egrets, and white ibis. It was like time stopped moving through the tangled roots of the mangrove trees. Imagine a Jurassic epoch.
