Thursday, 12 January 2017 (Part II)
At Sea — Pacific Ocean
Temps: 89F (32C) @ UTC 6:00P (ship’s time Noon)
I like animals. I like natural history. The travel bit is not the important bit.
The travel bit is what you have to do in order to go and look at animals.
~ David Attenborough ~
After a morning at sea, we docked in Golfito, Costa Rica at 1:00p. Our plan for the afternoon was to go out to the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary (OWS), which abuts Piedras Blancas National Park.
Normally, the sanctuary is closed to visitors in the afternoon, but Carol, the founder of this very worthwhile organization, made an exception in our case. And because the facility is accessible only by boat, she recommended Phoebe, from Changing Tide Tours, as a means of transport for us. When I contacted Phoebe, she suggested combining the OWS with a cruise to seek out the dolphins that are known to be residents of Golfo Dulce. When ten fellow-passengers signed up to join us, a small group tour was born.
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Left: Mui makes himself comfy in a hammock made from a life ring and some life vests.
Left: Our landing at the OSA Wildlife Sanctuary is a wet one!
I like to see animals in the wild … in their own habitat … where they belong. But that’s not always possible. Such was the case today, but these animals were caged for their own protection. Rescued, in some instances from abusive owners, the critters we saw at OWS were simply not releasable back into the wild. Our hosts — all volunteers at the sanctuary — told us the story behind each critter and provided excellent information about each species we saw. We didn’t get to see the animals that are slated to be released as they are kept away from human contact as much as possible so that they don’t imprint on people … very understandable.
[The thick canopy of the trees at the sanctuary provided excellent shade, but it also made photography conditions rather difficult. Sorry about the quality of these images.]
The kinkajou is a rainforest mammal also known as a honey bear.
Not that we didn’t get to see some monkeys free-ranging around OWS. In fact, Sweetie — a Geoffroy’s spider monkey — put in an appearance at the beginning of our tour, upstaging Hannah, who was telling us all about Boogie the tayra at the time. Then, just before we left, Rosie — another spider monkey — showed up to bid us farewell and show off as she swung from one tree to another in moves that would be the envy of any Cirque du Soleil acrobat.
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Left: Sweetie the Spider Monkey is a free-ranger at the sanctuary.
Right: This White-Faced Capuchin cannot be released into the wild as it does not
belong to the local troop, which would kill it rather than adopt it into their ranks.
This is one of the three Hoffman’s two-toed sloths at OWS. We are allowed inside
the cage to interact with this sloth … I get to feed it a few of its favorite leaves.
After performing her acrobatic routine, Rosie the spider monkey poses for us.
For the second half of our tour, Phoebe gave us a choice … go swimming at a nearby beach or seek out dolphins. The captain had gotten a call that the pod of resident pantropical spotted dolphins had been seen hunting in Golfo Dulce. Majority ruled and we headed out to find the dolphins. By this time, the water had grown choppy, but that did not detract from our pleasure when we finally spotted these graceful creatures. Don’t look for photos … I learned a long time ago to just enjoy the company of these speedy swimmers instead of trying to photograph them. A few swam close to the boat, but the ones that were putting on a show by jumping out of the water and spinning in the air were a bit distant. Still, quite a thrill seeing the dolphins in the bay.
A beautiful sunset adds color to the end of our day in Golfito.
As the sun set, we called it a day and headed back to Golfito … an hour’s boat ride away. By the time we reached the mangroves where we had hoped to do some birding, it was too dark. So we cut that out of our itinerary and returned to the pier where Insignia was docked … all a-shimmer against the inky darkness of the forest and mountains.
Our home away from home awaits our return.
We really enjoyed our outing today. I couldn’t help but wish that O had given us better use of the daylight hours with an earlier arrival … but the distance and speed equation got us this time.
© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.
Interesting to see you enjoying the fruits of your many months of pre-cruise planning. I did especially love the kinkajou, and Rosie's face could rival that of any child. The ship looks so pretty all sparkly in the dark. I am surprised Mui didn't try to get video of the dolphins.
ReplyDeleteHe did, Sue Malone, but he has yet to download and process ... and who knows if we can upload it
DeleteNice update, some of it looked very familier. My dil and I visited a sloth sanctuary while we were in C.R., while the (braver)ones were off ziplining. I will never forget looking into an enormous bowl and seeing it writihing with baby sloths, they are so cute except Freddie of course, he bites.
ReplyDeleteTo see dolfins in any shape or form always makes my day, we agree on clock time, so we just yell the o'clock which gives each other a chance to see them the spotter is of course always midday.I am not quite sure what fellow travelers think when they hear 1o'clock or 3 o'clock from our balcony but hey it works for us.
We also use the clock system to call out wildlife sightings ... it works great.
ReplyDeleteLoving following your blog. Thanks for making it easy to navigate from one day to the next! It sounds like you are really enjoying Oceania.
ReplyDelete