During the wee hours of the morning, National Geographic Sea Lion calmly entered the Pacific waters of the Golfo Dulce in the southern corner of Costa Rica, first stopping at Golfito, the major town in the area, in order to clear customs. As we were warmly accepted into the country, the chain of the anchor awoke our guests to a beautiful sunny day.
After navigating to the upper corner of the gulf, the anchor was dropped again for our morning activities: kayaking and Zodiac rides in the Esquinas River. Either on a peaceful self-adventure kayak trip or in the Zodiacs with our naturalists explaining what we were seeing, the views of little blue herons, cattle egrets, white ibis, parrot, kingfishers were all around us. But not just birds were spotted; with the help and sharp eyes of our Zodiac drivers we saw four tree boas, a couple of green iguanas, basiliks and a medium-size crocodile.
The Esquinas River is a fairly large river that runs down from the mountains of the Penas Blancas National Park, but its importance to us is the large area covered by mangroves. Mangroves are comprised of many different species of trees and plants that are able to thrive in brackish waters. The most conspicuous species is the red mangrove; those close to the mouth of the river are as old as 50 years but not more than 10 feet tall, while those up river with more fresh instead of brackish water reach over 90 feet. Mangroves are very important tropical ecosystems due to the protection their entangled root systems offer to small fish, crabs, shrimps, iguanas and more—almost like a day-care. They also protect the inland forest from strong tides and swells.
The second outing of the day brought us to this manicured trail garden, owned by Ron and Trudy MacAllister, a couple of U.S. expatriates who decided to live a self-sustained life by harvesting their own food. Later, by adding other more decorative plants they turned their backyard in this plant lover’s paradise, as well as a great attraction for tropical birds. We had great views of toucans, scarlet macaws, parrots, tanagers and hummingbirds…it was just an incredible welcoming to Costa Rica
