This morning we woke up to the sounds of National Geographic Sea Lion docking at the pier of the port of Golfito, Costa Rica.
This is one the fun things about traveling by ship: we go places without having to be much involved in the process of traveling. There is no packing and unpacking, no sitting for long periods of time in the confinement of a small vehicle. We wake up in the morning and we are there!
Just yesterday we swam among multicolored fish through the coral reef in some of the gorgeous islands of Panama. We went to sleep and today we wake up surrounded by dense green jungle, listening to distant howler monkeys and raucous scarlet macaws in Costa Rica.
We started our day, as is required when crossing borders between countries, at the lethargic port of Golfito at the southernmost tip of Costa Rica for immigration paperwork. The paperwork was done by our purser, behind scenes without our involvement.
Sea Lion then repositioned deeper into the Dulce Gulf to Casa Orquideas botanical garden, where we spent time visiting the magnificent collection of tropical plants that Trudy and Ron McAllister, two American expatriates, have put together during the last thirty years they have been living in this remote part of the world. Casa Orquideas is one of our favorites, especially on a photo expedition; there is something for everybody, and it is so easy to walk through. We spent a great morning seeing and photographing flowers, insects and birds of many shapes and colors. It was particularly interesting to see how our photographers spread out in search of their own personal subjects and were quickly immersed into their own worlds, working on the perfect photo.
Before noon we had a chance to cool down by swimming from the ship’s fantail in the calm waters of the bay.
As the sun started to get lower in the sky, we visited the Esquinas River and Finca Saladero, where we had the choice of walking a little more by gardens and adjacent primary forest, kayaking or cruising in our expedition landing craft through the mangrove forest at the mouth of the Esquinas River, and learning about this important ecosystem.
We had a very busy first day in Costa Rica, full of fun activities and sights!
