Casa Orquideas & Esquinas River, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
After a calm night of sailing, National Geographic Sea Lion arrived in Costa Rican waters. Specifically to the Golfo Dulce area, located along the South Pacific coast. This gulf is a pretty unique environment, because it is a tropical fjord. As you know, fjords are usually in temperate latitudes where glaciers have carved their deep centers, but here we are far from temperate regions. Golfo Dulce was formed by a separation of micro-plates, which made the center of the fjord sink down as far as 700 feet.
This part of the country is quite isolated. It could take as long as 7 hours to drive here from the central valley, making it a great place for new explorations. The lush rainforest frames the turquoise waters while waves peel ashore.
Today was full of contrasts. Our morning was in a manicured-trail garden owned by a couple of U.S. expatriates who moved here close to 30 years ago. They started the garden as a hobby, but their passion blossomed and they kept adding more and more exotic and native flora until they transformed the spot into a plant lover’s paradise. Hundreds of orchids in bloom decorated the trees. Fruits like papayas, pineapples, cocoa and bananas attract many colorful birds. A little medicinal garden shows us the importance of rainforest plants for future medicines, while other plants are used to turn unappealing medicines into better tasting ones—like the miracle fruit which changes bitter foods into sweet ones—especially helpful for children’s medicines. There is even a tree, the Ylang ylang, the flowers of which give the essence to a pricey perfume (Chanel No. 5).
In the afternoon we explored a protected mangrove forest that extends deep into a river. Several species of mangroves grow in these waters and host a great variety of birds, like little blue herons, snowy egrets, night herons, white ibis, parrots, and kingfishers among many more. As we drove up river with the Zodiacs, the mangroves were being slowly replaced by the tropical lush rainforest, which brought out a different array of animals. We were very lucky to spot a rainbow tree boa coiled around a bromeliad hanging from a vine, and not far from that a three-toe sloth hanging from a tree branch. We could have kept going and going; it felt like the river had hypnotized us, or may be it did…
What an amazing welcome to Costa Rica, a land of contrasts.
