Esquinas River & Casa Orquideas
Last night during our sleep we entered Golfo Dulce, our last stop in Costa Rica. Golfo Dulce is located at the southern-most tip of Costa Rica. Entering this bay is a truly a beautiful scene! At dawn, we navigated calmly into the deep waters of Dulce. Above, blue sky with distant, heavy rain clouds looming over pristine dense green-forested hills…. No signs of “civilization” in sight!
So at the break of dawn, we carried on, deep inside the bay and headed in to the mouth of the Esquinas River for our early-morning activities. Our explorations today took us through the very important mangrove forest, a generic term for several kinds of unrelated tropical and sub-tropical trees that share in common their ability to grow in salty water. We had a beautiful morning and enjoyed a very nice cool breeze as we toured by zodiac or kayak trough the river; indeed, it can really get very hot here!
On Esquinas River the mangrove forest trees themselves are visually very interesting, with their characteristic enormous stilt roots that look like gigantic spider legs; with them, these trees are constantly pushing the extent of the mangrove forest deeper and deeper into the ocean’s realm. But aside from this there were also some very nice sightings of the creatures that inhabit the mangrove, such as the Central American tree boas, and several birds, like white ibis, snowy egrets, little and great blue herons, blue-hooded parrots, etc. But one of the highlights for us today was the sighting of a bird specialized to this specific ecosystem, the mangrove cuckoo.
After having fun at Esquinas River, National Geographic Sea Lion repositioned to the nearby Casa Orquideas (“House of the Orchids”), the renowned botanical garden that has become a true showcase for tropical plants, flowers and birds. Casa Orquideas is a creation of Trudy and Ron McAllister, two American expatriates living in this very remote area of Costa Rica for the past 30 years.
Our walks in the gardens were spectacular. Every place we looked at was a worth a photo or just spending a few minutes enjoying. Aside from all the exuberant tropical vegetation and the beautiful flowers, many colorful birds were seen, including the raucous scarlet macaws flying back and forth overhead and the chestnut-mandibled (now called black-mandibled) toucans, hopping constantly from treetop to treetop with their enormous bills. Anywhere the bill went the bird would follow!
Casa Orquideas is no doubt a perfect ending for the first leg of our expedition in paradisiacal Costa Rica. And now we prepare for our new adventures in our next destination – Panama and the Panama Canal.
