A Trip to Panama and Costa Rica
The Rainforest: Marenco National Park
The Yorktown Clipper, our home away from home, whisked us off to Costa Rica. The beaches on which we landed had Pat humming the theme from Gilligan's Island.
About a third of the land in Costa Rica is protected, either as national parks or as private reserves like this one. Many kinds of palm trees are found in this tropical rainforest. Do NOT stand under coconut palms!
We were lucky to come across two scarlet macaws in an easily-accessible tree. The sight of these birds flying was breathtaking.
One of the naturalists, Willow Zuchowski, an American long-time resident of Costa Rica, gave us a botany tour of Marenco. The lush growth of the area is due to the great amount of rainfall--but we had beautiful blue skies for this hike.
Plants often grow on other plants in this dense vegetation. There is a huge variety of orchids, all colors and sizes.
Sometimes our trail wasn't really a trail. The flower is called "Hot Lips" and the red part isn't a flower at all, but specialized leaves. Only the white part is a flower.
The beauty of the plants of Costa Rica has created a thriving business in exporting ornamentals to the US. NOT a plant to export: The strangler fig winds its way around an existing tree, eventually killing it.
After our hike we relaxed with a picnic on the beach. The cove was too rough for swimming but it made a pretty background. We decided to explore the beach.
We saw butterflies everywhere, but they never settled down to have their pictures taken. This is actually a moth, urania fulgens. Pat was always looking for birds, like this mangrove hawk.
There were sand crabs and other marine life in abundance. Finally we boarded our DIBs for the short trip back to the ship.