Golfo Dulce, Rio Rincon and Casa Orquideas
About midnight, we sailed the 60 nautical miles south and around the point of the Osa Peninsula and entered the spectacular and very calm Golfo Dulce. After an early breakfast, we disembarked to visit a particularly beautiful ecosystem: the mangrove forest on the mouth of the Rincon River. Some people went kayaking, others took zodiac cruises and the rest of us went walking along a road, having the rain forest on the right side and the mangrove swamp on the left. All of us came back excited with all the sightings: yellow-billed cotinga, fiery-billed aracari, spotted-crowned euphonia, scarlet macaw, herons and kingfishers.
After a good lunch cruising on the calm waters of the gulf, surrounded by the lush vegetation of the rain forest, we positioned our ship just off the beach entry to a little paradise of ornamental plants and tropical birds. We started walking on trails through the gardens at Casa Orquideas, and little by little we got ecology and beauty: scarlet macaws, king vultures, white hawk, as well as toucans and hummingbirds flew above us, surrounded by native and exotic plants. It has been a work of 25 years of effort by Ron and Trudy McAllister to create the great collections of the most beautiful plants of the world, all together in this wonderful garden. Many of the orchids were in bloom, including the world famous vanilla orchid.
Some Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum) were spotted under a broad leaf. They get their name from the way they bite the main vein of long leaves of Heliconia, or palms, so that the leaves droop to create a tent-like waterproof shelter. This protects them from rain in these areas that receive up to two hundred inches of precipitation per year.
Finally by the end of the afternoon, we had to return back to the Sea Voyager for a good hot shower and a cocktail at recap time! What a day. Can there be anything that will even come close to the experience of this day?
About midnight, we sailed the 60 nautical miles south and around the point of the Osa Peninsula and entered the spectacular and very calm Golfo Dulce. After an early breakfast, we disembarked to visit a particularly beautiful ecosystem: the mangrove forest on the mouth of the Rincon River. Some people went kayaking, others took zodiac cruises and the rest of us went walking along a road, having the rain forest on the right side and the mangrove swamp on the left. All of us came back excited with all the sightings: yellow-billed cotinga, fiery-billed aracari, spotted-crowned euphonia, scarlet macaw, herons and kingfishers.
After a good lunch cruising on the calm waters of the gulf, surrounded by the lush vegetation of the rain forest, we positioned our ship just off the beach entry to a little paradise of ornamental plants and tropical birds. We started walking on trails through the gardens at Casa Orquideas, and little by little we got ecology and beauty: scarlet macaws, king vultures, white hawk, as well as toucans and hummingbirds flew above us, surrounded by native and exotic plants. It has been a work of 25 years of effort by Ron and Trudy McAllister to create the great collections of the most beautiful plants of the world, all together in this wonderful garden. Many of the orchids were in bloom, including the world famous vanilla orchid.
Some Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum) were spotted under a broad leaf. They get their name from the way they bite the main vein of long leaves of Heliconia, or palms, so that the leaves droop to create a tent-like waterproof shelter. This protects them from rain in these areas that receive up to two hundred inches of precipitation per year.
Finally by the end of the afternoon, we had to return back to the Sea Voyager for a good hot shower and a cocktail at recap time! What a day. Can there be anything that will even come close to the experience of this day?
