Casa Orquideas, Golfo Dulce
Today we started our journey with hard decisions for the morning activities which were: kayaking, Zodiac cruising, and a birding hike. Some of us chose the hike and had a great time finding and trying to identify some of the birds out of the 880 species you could see in the tropics of Costa Rica. You have no idea how hard it can get when you see one of these tiny little birds moving and hopping from branch to branch and you are trying to see the colors of the feathers and the shape of the beak and so on… We did pretty well for the most part, as we saw scarlet macaws, plain xenops, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, trogons, tityras, warblers, among many others and we had a great time trying to see them all.
After lunch we listened to a lecture give by Carlos Chacon, one of our naturalists, about why the Neotropics are one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. When the talk was finish we were ready to explore the wonders of Casa Orquideas Botanical Garden owned by Ron and Trudy MacAllister. Ron and Trudy arrived at Golfo Dulce in 1974 and through the years of collecting plants from the shorelines and hills around the gulf, and trading with other botanical gardens, have assembled a unique collection of tropical sea level flora.
At this garden we had a wonderful time looking at the native and introduced species of plants the MacAllisters have colleted through the years as well as the birds that visit the garden looking for nectar and fruits. By the end of our hike we found an Aristolochia grandiflora or what is known as the pelican flower with its inflated tube (picture) to impress us with its beauty.
Today we started our journey with hard decisions for the morning activities which were: kayaking, Zodiac cruising, and a birding hike. Some of us chose the hike and had a great time finding and trying to identify some of the birds out of the 880 species you could see in the tropics of Costa Rica. You have no idea how hard it can get when you see one of these tiny little birds moving and hopping from branch to branch and you are trying to see the colors of the feathers and the shape of the beak and so on… We did pretty well for the most part, as we saw scarlet macaws, plain xenops, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, trogons, tityras, warblers, among many others and we had a great time trying to see them all.
After lunch we listened to a lecture give by Carlos Chacon, one of our naturalists, about why the Neotropics are one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. When the talk was finish we were ready to explore the wonders of Casa Orquideas Botanical Garden owned by Ron and Trudy MacAllister. Ron and Trudy arrived at Golfo Dulce in 1974 and through the years of collecting plants from the shorelines and hills around the gulf, and trading with other botanical gardens, have assembled a unique collection of tropical sea level flora.
At this garden we had a wonderful time looking at the native and introduced species of plants the MacAllisters have colleted through the years as well as the birds that visit the garden looking for nectar and fruits. By the end of our hike we found an Aristolochia grandiflora or what is known as the pelican flower with its inflated tube (picture) to impress us with its beauty.
