Shore Excursion when you are on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica.
The Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica is a place of natural wonders; they are everywhere in the country! While making a stop on Costa Rican port of call, Limon, you can take wonderful tours that will guide through the magnificence that mother nature gives. Here you can find the three most popular tours on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. On this list, you will be able to distinguish the highlights of the adventures offered to you in the province.
Tortuguero Canals:
No better way to meet the jungle than the canals of Tortuguero, a magical place is seen on board of a boat. When you are in the middle of the lagoons nature is simply taken to another level. Across the canals, you will be absorbed by an abundance of flora and fauna that truly gets you in a dreamlike experience.
The first thing to notice is actually the water, you can see in its stillness a mirror because the jungle transforms into two dimensions, one where everything happens and the other where everything is reflected. Wonders of the rainforest in all they splendor, 360 degrees of rainforest!
The Tortuguero National Park has more than 400 species of threes and more than 2000 species of plants, this means that everywhere you look you can find tropical jungle! And if you keep the silence, you may also experience the incredible experience of wildlife in its habitat; and this is when it is important having a tour guide as a companion.
To our eyes is hard to distinguish among all the green a single bird, not to talk about spotting animals! That is almost impossible for our untrained eyes! The animals have learned, after thousands of years, to blend in, and they do an excellent job! So, this is our companion?s job, the tour guide?s eyes are well adjusted to the place as well as the local skipper?s Both are used to the forest. This means; sit, relax, and enjoy the ride! You are going to be pointed at any wildlife they advert.
Talking about wildlife, because animals look for water, several of them are hiding on the thickness of the shrubs. Here are some examples of the wildlife you may encounter in the canals:
- Emerald Basilisk, better known as the Jesus Christ lizard for its ability to run on the surface of the water, is normally found living in the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica and in low elevation regions they are omnivores, their diet consists in insects, flowers and small vertebrates as eggs, birds, fish or even small snakes.
- Spectacled caiman: This is a small to mid-size crocodilian (Actually a close relative of alligators), they eat insects, crustaceans, and mollusks, the larger ones eat water snails and snakes (impressible and magnificent creatures)
- Sloths: These mammals are one of the highlights in Costa Rica, they don’t eat meat and they move really, really, REALLY slow, Why? Believe it or not, their digestion processes are very slow as the leaves they eat are hard to digest and they do have a quite complex bacteria system to handle the leaves they take. Their body temperature changes during the day, and the sun helps them do their digestion. Two species in Costa Rica: The two-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth.
The Tortuguero canals are an impressive yet calming experience that gives a world of wonders and surprises, an excellent way to know some of Costa Rica diversity.
Banana Plantation
Costa Rica was the first country in Central America that developed a fruit industry back in the late XIX Century. Nowadays the country is one of the top producers in the world, and you will be able to see one of the main engines of the Costa Rican economy on movement.
When you are on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica, and in the road, you will see acres and acres of banana plantations and we find a color contrast in them, on the bananas a light blue bag covers them. Strange thing to put on a banana bunch, huh? They actually make sense, they are a shield from all types of insects and birds. So, when you see the blue bag, now you will know why it is there.
Read also: Caribbean Highlights Tour
The growing time for a banana bunch is around 9 to 12 months and they don’t have harvesting season as it happens throughout the year, the banana is a perennial (a plant that lives for more than two years) that replaces itself. They are grown in tropical regions, and Costa Rica has the perfect weather (Costa Rica weather has just two periods, dry and rainy).
On the plantation, you can see how the workers do the selection and cleansing process, highly important to do an efficient job all the way. 80% of the production is for export to the selected ones are the very best of the harvest.
Fruits of Costa Rica
Traveling you may pass by a fruit stand where you can learn about the different fruits of the area and eat them as fresh as can be.
- Pineapple: delicious and extravagant fruit, they are bigger than a hand and have a crown that confirms their nature. They are a delicious malformation of the plant induced by human intervention and can be eaten from diverse ways like; fresh, cooked, juiced, and preserved. The dehydrated ones conserve the natural flavor with the sweetness in them.
- Mango: grows up from a tree that lasts up to 300 years, they are cultivated in a tropical environment and are generally sweet, in Limon they cut the mango before is ripe, so is a little harder and more acid, put into a bag and serve as French fries with a little of salt and lemon, one word for it; delightful!
- Palm Peach (We know it as pejibaye): Grown from a palm tree that lasts around 70 years (Same palm that produces the heart of palm), is a delicious fruit that has to be boiled to be eaten It has to be cooked in water for 3 to 5 hours and tastes delicious with some mayonnaise.
Conclusion:
Limon province in the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica is a place of wonder and diverse activities, given this, it’s wonderful for a short or long stay, it has flora everywhere you look and it is rich in fauna. Costa Rica is a must-stop in any cruise for its curiosities and a large amount of things to discover. The food is totally worth it, impressively sweet and yummy.
