Los Inocentes and Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica
Last Friday, the 25 of July we celebrated the 149 year anniversary of the annexation of Guanacaste to Costa Rica. We all celebrated this important event in sabanero (local cowboy) style, during our visit to the semi-deciduous tropical forest of the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
Rancho Los Inocentes welcomed us with a traditional “Tamarindo” juice and the northern-most volcano in Costa Rica, Orosi, started to come into view after a little rain from the influence of the trade winds blowing from the Caribbean. We saddled-up our horses and went exploring through pasture fields and riparian (gallery) forest. First the huge strangler figs, Guanacaste and Saman trees; then we all were surprised by the presence of Howler, Spider and White-throated Capuchin monkeys in less than 1 hour! Some others who wanted to get a different experience went on a tractor ride to look from a comfortable chair at the surrounding areas. It was one of those “guanacastecan” days with a little bit of rain and then suddenly a warm sun that made us switch back and forth our yellow canary colored rain ponchos. Lunch was served on the terrace of the hacienda with a magnificent view of the ranch and volcano. Here we enjoyed (even the vegetarians) the delicious steak, chicken “salchichon” and the yucca (manioc) root.
On our 40 minute drive back to the ship, it was “siesta” time for some, but the younger ones among us were looking forward for the afternoon swimming activities. We repositioned the Sea Voyager in a remote area of the Santa Elena Bay for kayaking, swimming and the torpedo blaster were the children enjoyed some moments of speed and adrenalin. The day ended with our traditional cocktail hour on the sundeck where we noticed that some people are getting different tropical colors: a few a nice sun-tanned, others needing a little more suntan lotion, but no matter what, the colors of the sunset were the best of all.
Last Friday, the 25 of July we celebrated the 149 year anniversary of the annexation of Guanacaste to Costa Rica. We all celebrated this important event in sabanero (local cowboy) style, during our visit to the semi-deciduous tropical forest of the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
Rancho Los Inocentes welcomed us with a traditional “Tamarindo” juice and the northern-most volcano in Costa Rica, Orosi, started to come into view after a little rain from the influence of the trade winds blowing from the Caribbean. We saddled-up our horses and went exploring through pasture fields and riparian (gallery) forest. First the huge strangler figs, Guanacaste and Saman trees; then we all were surprised by the presence of Howler, Spider and White-throated Capuchin monkeys in less than 1 hour! Some others who wanted to get a different experience went on a tractor ride to look from a comfortable chair at the surrounding areas. It was one of those “guanacastecan” days with a little bit of rain and then suddenly a warm sun that made us switch back and forth our yellow canary colored rain ponchos. Lunch was served on the terrace of the hacienda with a magnificent view of the ranch and volcano. Here we enjoyed (even the vegetarians) the delicious steak, chicken “salchichon” and the yucca (manioc) root.
On our 40 minute drive back to the ship, it was “siesta” time for some, but the younger ones among us were looking forward for the afternoon swimming activities. We repositioned the Sea Voyager in a remote area of the Santa Elena Bay for kayaking, swimming and the torpedo blaster were the children enjoyed some moments of speed and adrenalin. The day ended with our traditional cocktail hour on the sundeck where we noticed that some people are getting different tropical colors: a few a nice sun-tanned, others needing a little more suntan lotion, but no matter what, the colors of the sunset were the best of all.
