Welcome to Costa Rica. Wow! Today is only the sixth day of a brand new year and most of us have already been through three countries. On our first day in Costa Rica, we woke up to the remarkable profile of one of the most beautiful spots in the country: the “Sweet Gulf” or Golfo Dulce in Spanish. With a silhouette of tall hills surrounding it all covered in evergreen forests, a very high average rainfall, and an incredible geological history, the southernmost gulf on the Pacific coastline of Costa Rica, is quite the sight. The land portion is obviously gorgeous, but the wonders of the underwater are not any less remarkable. With a depth at the entrance of a meager 60 meters, once you enter the gulf there are spots where it reaches 250 meters deep, that is 825 feet in depth. Mistakenly called a “tropical fjord” the gulf is well known for being a favorite for birthing humpback whales. This area, along with the Panama Gulf, is the farthest southern range where the northern humpbacks in February and March (and the southern humpbacks in August) come to give birth and mate.
We visited two very special sites in the area. The first this morning was Casa Orquidea, which has been the home of Ron and Trudy McAlister for the past 35 years, and having left all of their “commodities” behind they live a simple, but happy life in a botanical haven. With perfect weather and amount of rainfall for plants to thrive in, they literally live their dream life. Many of us wondered- could we live as isolated from the “real” world as they do? Could I obviate the things we rate necessary for a simple uncomplicated life? My personal answer is “in a blink”. The calls from the toucans and scarlet macaws were the background for our morning visit, which consisted of a little bit of everything: walking through the garden, swimming, paddle boarding or simply taking pictures and enjoying the spot.
Later this afternoon, we moved to the area of Golfito. Golfito literally means “the little gulf” and it’s basically because it is a little gulf within the larger Golfo Dulce. We explored the area on the expedition landing craft and kayaks and were rewarded with great sightings: spotted sandpipers, white ibis, snowy egrets, green herons, green iguanas, two sightings of sloths and the always amazing white throated capuchin monkeys. As the sun sets behind the evergreen Golfito hills, the wonderful orange sky bids our day good bye. What a fantastic way to start our Costa Rican expedition.
