Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
Today we spent our last day in Costa Rican waters. This was a day full of activities and choices. After a good breakfast, some of us took off on a birding hike along a dirt road. We had a great time looking at or should I say trying to get a look at all of the tropical birds that were flying around. Bird watching is a nice hobby where you can do some walking and see, not only the forest surrounding you but some of the birds that live in the forest. On today’s hike we had good birding with sightings of Black-crowned tityra, Blue-crowned motmot, fiery-billed aracari, chestnut-mandibled toucan, scarlet macaws just to mention some of the spectacular birds along the road.
However, some people went on a kayaking trip along the mangrove forest lining the bay’s shoreline (picture). The kayakers had time to look at this ecosystem and exercise at the same time. Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants that are found throughout the tropics. They form a distinct unique ecosystem and are typical plants of the sheltered coastlines, estuaries, and coastal lagoons.
In the afternoon we explored the trails of Casa Orquideas. This is a private botanical garden put together by Ron and Trudy MacAllister over the last 20 years of collecting some of the local rainforest plants and trading some with other botanical gardens. In the second picture we see a cacao tree with the fruit coming out. This is one of the most important export crops throughout the tropics for the ultimate production of chocolate. The plant is believed to have originated in the Amazon Basin. Some of the native tribes of people in Central and South America believed the plant came from gods, hence it’s scientific name Theobroma, meaning “food of the gods”. For these indigenous people it formed the base of both hot and cold beverages, and also of a paste that was eaten. For the Aztecs and Mayans, cacao served as currency and later in the 1700’s the Spaniards also used the beans as a substitute as money due to the lack of metal in the colonies. Today cacao is still a truly important part of our lives, at least for those that are chocolate addicts.
Today we spent our last day in Costa Rican waters. This was a day full of activities and choices. After a good breakfast, some of us took off on a birding hike along a dirt road. We had a great time looking at or should I say trying to get a look at all of the tropical birds that were flying around. Bird watching is a nice hobby where you can do some walking and see, not only the forest surrounding you but some of the birds that live in the forest. On today’s hike we had good birding with sightings of Black-crowned tityra, Blue-crowned motmot, fiery-billed aracari, chestnut-mandibled toucan, scarlet macaws just to mention some of the spectacular birds along the road.
However, some people went on a kayaking trip along the mangrove forest lining the bay’s shoreline (picture). The kayakers had time to look at this ecosystem and exercise at the same time. Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants that are found throughout the tropics. They form a distinct unique ecosystem and are typical plants of the sheltered coastlines, estuaries, and coastal lagoons.
In the afternoon we explored the trails of Casa Orquideas. This is a private botanical garden put together by Ron and Trudy MacAllister over the last 20 years of collecting some of the local rainforest plants and trading some with other botanical gardens. In the second picture we see a cacao tree with the fruit coming out. This is one of the most important export crops throughout the tropics for the ultimate production of chocolate. The plant is believed to have originated in the Amazon Basin. Some of the native tribes of people in Central and South America believed the plant came from gods, hence it’s scientific name Theobroma, meaning “food of the gods”. For these indigenous people it formed the base of both hot and cold beverages, and also of a paste that was eaten. For the Aztecs and Mayans, cacao served as currency and later in the 1700’s the Spaniards also used the beans as a substitute as money due to the lack of metal in the colonies. Today cacao is still a truly important part of our lives, at least for those that are chocolate addicts.
