Casa Orquideas, Golfo Dulce
Today we experienced our first day in Costa Rica after four wonderful days in Panama. We started off with a series of hikes through a beautiful botanical garden, or as our expedition leader said a tropical collection of introduced and native plants. This is a truly heavenly garden that has been put together over the last 22 years by Ron and Trudy MacAllisther who have been collecting native plants from the region and getting others by being in touch with other botanical gardens. The garden is truly a great place to learn about plants, tropical forests or just take a stroll looking at the flowers. As we walked around the trails we realized we weren’t the only ones interested in the garden. There were quite a number of birds in the gardens as well. We got to see Chestnut-mandible Toucans, Manakins, hummingbirds, tanagers and even a White Hawk soaring up in the sky. We didn’t know if it was looking at the plants or at the weird Homo sapiens with colorful hats, binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras taking over the garden.
In the afternoon the Sea Voyager took us close to the mouth of Rio Rincon, where we had several options to chose from to explore the river which included kayaking, Zodiac cruises up the river mouth, and a birding hike on a paved road that ended on a cantina where the birding is usually very good, especially while sitting on the veranda. All three trips ended very well with sightings of jacanas, and egrets, kingfishers, ibis and even a three-toed sloth high on a tree that wasn’t even bothered by our presence. Here in the picture we see one of the beautiful plants that shared the beauty of its blossom with us - a torch ginger.
Today we experienced our first day in Costa Rica after four wonderful days in Panama. We started off with a series of hikes through a beautiful botanical garden, or as our expedition leader said a tropical collection of introduced and native plants. This is a truly heavenly garden that has been put together over the last 22 years by Ron and Trudy MacAllisther who have been collecting native plants from the region and getting others by being in touch with other botanical gardens. The garden is truly a great place to learn about plants, tropical forests or just take a stroll looking at the flowers. As we walked around the trails we realized we weren’t the only ones interested in the garden. There were quite a number of birds in the gardens as well. We got to see Chestnut-mandible Toucans, Manakins, hummingbirds, tanagers and even a White Hawk soaring up in the sky. We didn’t know if it was looking at the plants or at the weird Homo sapiens with colorful hats, binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras taking over the garden.
In the afternoon the Sea Voyager took us close to the mouth of Rio Rincon, where we had several options to chose from to explore the river which included kayaking, Zodiac cruises up the river mouth, and a birding hike on a paved road that ended on a cantina where the birding is usually very good, especially while sitting on the veranda. All three trips ended very well with sightings of jacanas, and egrets, kingfishers, ibis and even a three-toed sloth high on a tree that wasn’t even bothered by our presence. Here in the picture we see one of the beautiful plants that shared the beauty of its blossom with us - a torch ginger.
