Bahia Santa Elena and Rancho Los Inocentes, Costa Rica
We woke up in the beautiful bay of Santa Elena where the ship had spent the night; no houses, no developments, just the hills covered with lush green vegetation and the frigatebirds picking up fish on the calm waters of the bay. Suddenly someone passed the word: sea turtles on the portside, and there were two Green sea turtles swimming slowly on the surface of the water only 20 feet away. All the early risers were able to see these gentle animals in what looked like it was their private paradise.
After a good breakfast, pretty much every body jumped from the stern to swim. Kayakers went to check the coastline and came back with the news, a troop of white-throated Capuchin monkeys were spotted up on the trees.
We came back on board and moved the ship down the coast a short way, where the captain anchored us just off the small fishing village of Cuajiniquil (named after a common tree of the Dry Tropical Forest), where the bus picked us up. Our destination was a spectacular ranch stretching over many acres of relatively pristine forests and savannahs. Located in the foothills of the magnificent Orosi Volcano.
Horseback riding or a picturesque tractor pull where some of the options that we had to explore the Tropical Dry or semi-deciduous forest. Soon we started to find the wildlife of the area: howler monkeys up on the trees, colorful birds flying all around and always the spectacular scenery of the Orosi Volcano in the background of the landscape. While the “sabaneros” (Costa Ricans cowboys) where pointing to a two-toed sloth up on a tree above a small river, suddenly a big splash came from 6 feet away from our horses, a crocodile had been there all the time and decided to get in the water very quickly.
We came back to the ship just in time to enjoy the sunset, recaps and dinner, before going to sleep after another day full of exploration in this northwest corner of Costa Rica.
We woke up in the beautiful bay of Santa Elena where the ship had spent the night; no houses, no developments, just the hills covered with lush green vegetation and the frigatebirds picking up fish on the calm waters of the bay. Suddenly someone passed the word: sea turtles on the portside, and there were two Green sea turtles swimming slowly on the surface of the water only 20 feet away. All the early risers were able to see these gentle animals in what looked like it was their private paradise.
After a good breakfast, pretty much every body jumped from the stern to swim. Kayakers went to check the coastline and came back with the news, a troop of white-throated Capuchin monkeys were spotted up on the trees.
We came back on board and moved the ship down the coast a short way, where the captain anchored us just off the small fishing village of Cuajiniquil (named after a common tree of the Dry Tropical Forest), where the bus picked us up. Our destination was a spectacular ranch stretching over many acres of relatively pristine forests and savannahs. Located in the foothills of the magnificent Orosi Volcano.
Horseback riding or a picturesque tractor pull where some of the options that we had to explore the Tropical Dry or semi-deciduous forest. Soon we started to find the wildlife of the area: howler monkeys up on the trees, colorful birds flying all around and always the spectacular scenery of the Orosi Volcano in the background of the landscape. While the “sabaneros” (Costa Ricans cowboys) where pointing to a two-toed sloth up on a tree above a small river, suddenly a big splash came from 6 feet away from our horses, a crocodile had been there all the time and decided to get in the water very quickly.
We came back to the ship just in time to enjoy the sunset, recaps and dinner, before going to sleep after another day full of exploration in this northwest corner of Costa Rica.
