Rancho Los Inocentes and Bahia Santa Elena
With the rising of the sun, we noticed we had arrived at a little fishing town in the province of Guanacaste. This region of Costa Rica became part of the nation of Costa Rica during the colonial days, about one hundred and sixty five years ago. The name of the province comes from the huge tree native to this region, whose flattened pods coil around like ears, which was the reason it was called guauhnacaztli, from the Nahuatl word quauitl, for tree, and nacaztli, for ear. During the dry season, the countryside here turns completely yellow. It is autumn relocated to the heat of the tropics, because the yellow tree bark, without foliage, is covered with flowers. When they fall, they paint the ground an intense yellow which then blends with the old gold color of the hay turning yellow beneath the endless sun.
Our morning destination is a beautiful horse ranch named “Los Inocentes,” the boundaries of which once stretched all the way to Nicaragua, and comprised about 280,000 hectares. This ranch borders on the National Park, and gave us the opportunity to explore some of the ecosystem, either by horseback or tractor-pulled cart. All the while the Orosi Volcano was visible in the background at all time. During this visit, we saw three of the four species of Costa Rican monkeys, as well as iguanas and beautiful tropical birds. After a great barbecue lunch in the ranch house, we returned to the Sea Voyager.
In the afternoon the ship repositioned to the beautiful Santa Elena Bay, where we shared this great place with a solitary sailboat. The whole bay was surrounded by a tropical dry forest, a threatened ecosystem that used to be found from the pacific coast of Mexico down to Costa Rica. Due to cattle farming and over logging there is nowadays very little left of this ecosystem. Thanks to the conservation efforts of Costa Rica preserving the last remaining of the original cover, UNESCO has declared this area a World Heritage Site. Among the most characteristic plants that we saw were several different cacti, frangipani trees, and lots of many diverse spiny plants.
Some groups went snorkeling, others went kayaking, some rode the torpedo blaster and the rest of us we went in Zodiac cruises to explore a mangrove estuary along a little river. Soon the first birds were found: mangrove hawk, brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebird, mangrove warblers, kingfishers, and the first spotted sandpipers arriving Costa Rica on their way to South America. We got excited to see that they still had the spots on their breasts, the mating plumage. Soon they will molt to a grey and white plumage.
Back on the ship at cocktail hour we were pleased with the day and the anchorage place chosen by our Captain. A dramatic red sky appeared before our eyes, and this wonderful sunset was a great way to end the day.
With the rising of the sun, we noticed we had arrived at a little fishing town in the province of Guanacaste. This region of Costa Rica became part of the nation of Costa Rica during the colonial days, about one hundred and sixty five years ago. The name of the province comes from the huge tree native to this region, whose flattened pods coil around like ears, which was the reason it was called guauhnacaztli, from the Nahuatl word quauitl, for tree, and nacaztli, for ear. During the dry season, the countryside here turns completely yellow. It is autumn relocated to the heat of the tropics, because the yellow tree bark, without foliage, is covered with flowers. When they fall, they paint the ground an intense yellow which then blends with the old gold color of the hay turning yellow beneath the endless sun.
Our morning destination is a beautiful horse ranch named “Los Inocentes,” the boundaries of which once stretched all the way to Nicaragua, and comprised about 280,000 hectares. This ranch borders on the National Park, and gave us the opportunity to explore some of the ecosystem, either by horseback or tractor-pulled cart. All the while the Orosi Volcano was visible in the background at all time. During this visit, we saw three of the four species of Costa Rican monkeys, as well as iguanas and beautiful tropical birds. After a great barbecue lunch in the ranch house, we returned to the Sea Voyager.
In the afternoon the ship repositioned to the beautiful Santa Elena Bay, where we shared this great place with a solitary sailboat. The whole bay was surrounded by a tropical dry forest, a threatened ecosystem that used to be found from the pacific coast of Mexico down to Costa Rica. Due to cattle farming and over logging there is nowadays very little left of this ecosystem. Thanks to the conservation efforts of Costa Rica preserving the last remaining of the original cover, UNESCO has declared this area a World Heritage Site. Among the most characteristic plants that we saw were several different cacti, frangipani trees, and lots of many diverse spiny plants.
Some groups went snorkeling, others went kayaking, some rode the torpedo blaster and the rest of us we went in Zodiac cruises to explore a mangrove estuary along a little river. Soon the first birds were found: mangrove hawk, brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebird, mangrove warblers, kingfishers, and the first spotted sandpipers arriving Costa Rica on their way to South America. We got excited to see that they still had the spots on their breasts, the mating plumage. Soon they will molt to a grey and white plumage.
Back on the ship at cocktail hour we were pleased with the day and the anchorage place chosen by our Captain. A dramatic red sky appeared before our eyes, and this wonderful sunset was a great way to end the day.
