A day out on the Golfo Dulce

Running behind with blip due to a couple of action packed, but exhausting, days.

Fortunately, the music last night did largely desist at about 9pm, and we were asleep soon after.

An early start, we were expecting a taxi to take us to the quayside at Puerto Jimenez at 6.30.  In fact, he didn’t turn up, and we finally got on the road at about 7.15, after the hotel manager chased up our travel agent.  We had visions of getting to the port and the boat having left without us.  In fact, it turned out our travel agent had booked us a private tour, so the boat was patiently waiting, with the husband and wife crew.

And a great day we had.  We set out across the Golfo Dulce towards the rainforest on the opposite side.  A couple of bottlenose dolphins came to investigate the boat on the way out.  Difficult to get photos, as I found it impossible to predict exactly where they would surface.  But there’s one in extras.  Then up a river (I think it was the Rio Esquinas) into mangrove forest, where we saw all the usual suspects – great and little blue herons (in extras), great white egrets, crocodiles, crabs, and just as we were leaving to head back out into the Golfo, the blipped pelican. Also as we were leaving the river, the tide had got quite low, and there was a mud bank teeming with waders and herons.

Our crew then took us to a lovely bay on the edge of the Piedras Blancas National Park.  It would seem that many of their clients “collect” National Parks, and are delighted to collect this one so easily!  Here, we’re were treated to juice and burritos, though sadly, the fact that W doesn’t eat meat had failed to reach this crew, so he had to make do with the tuna sandwich prepared as our takeaway breakfast by the hotel. D broke open a fresh coconut for us to enjoy the water and the meat.

We then moved on to another bay, where we tried snorkelling – another first for me; W thought he’d tried once before in his youth, but his first for many years.  A small selection of fish, but I have no underwater camera gear, so no photos.
Then back across the bay, this time meeting a pod of what our guide called Pacific spotted dolphins, but whose correct name seems to be Coastal pantropical spotted dolphins.  Either name is fine by me.  I took a few photos, none of which does justice to the experience, but really just enjoyed the novelty of these dolphins surfacing all around the boat.

We returned to our hotel, where our hotel manager told us that the kitchen had a problem with water, and was unfortunately closed.  At our request they booked us a table at the restaurant next door. We rested slept for a while, then wandered round there as it was getting dark. They provided another lovely meal.