Casa Orquidea and Golfito, Costa Rica

Early in the morning we arrived at the southern-most bay on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Golfito. It is indeed our last day of the trip in Costa Rica and almost the year. Tomorrow morning we’ll be disembarking on the beaches of Panama. At day break the National Geographic Sea Lion entered smoothly into the very calm waters of Golfo Dulce, as the sun started emerging from behind the distant high mountains of the cordillera of Talamanca. Golfo Dulce is an idyllic place! Deep waters, extremely calm and surrounded by pristine rain forest. Our kind of place!

Our first visit today was to Casa Orquidea Botanical Garden. Created and lovingly attended by Ron and Trudy Mac Allister, two American expatriates have lived in this remote place for the last 30 years. The McAllister’s have collected tropical plants from all over the world, a hobby that over all these years slowly became a full time passion. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to visit such a place. This is a beautifully groomed Garden of Eden, surrounded by exuberant primary forest, where photographers, birders and plant lovers go wild over all we can see here.

As a photographer, one can easily get carried away. There is so much to photograph! We saw colorful plants and birds, as well as many leaves and flowers of different sizes, shapes and patterns. Today, among the very many different plants, we saw scarlet macaws, green honeycreepers, chestnut- mandible toucans, king vultures, white hawks, short tailed hawks, spot-crowned euphonias, palm tanagers and many more.

Later, after our walk there was an opportunity to cool down from the hot tropical sun in the Golfo Dulce waters. We anchored a Zodiac just off the ship and took turns diving and swimming from it.

Our afternoon was spent in the smaller bay of Golfito. This port was once a thriving town created and run by the United Fruit Company for the cultivation and export of bananas. With Zodiacs and kayaks we ventured into the small bay, where again we were rewarded with more sightings of interesting birds, like ruddy turnstones, tri-colored herons, ospreys, a sleeping boa constrictor on the edges vegetation, a fast moving troop of white-faced monkeys and a leaf eating howler monkey.

It was a great day! We are now eager to see what awaits us in Panama and 2012!