Costa Rica 2023
Goodbye
They say “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” Going into this trip I thought to myself, “how on earth are we going to spend 4-5 hours on a boat for 9 days looking at dolphins and whales? Won’t that get old?” Very quickly after the first sighting of bottlenose dolphins on the first day getting out into the waters I realized, “no, it won’t get old.” Every sighting was a brand new experience. I’m not sure if it was luck that was on our side or if that’s what it’s regularly like in Golfo Dulce, but regardless, it never got old. From getting to see the group of ‘bachelor’ bottlenose dolphins to seeing a group of momma and baby bottlenose dolphins -and even momma and baby whales- it felt like we got to see it all. Well, not all. I think we’re still a little bitter that we left without getting to see the spotted dolphins. Regardless, everyday at El Chontal, we woke up hopeful that we would have a great experience on the boat and lucky for us, we were never disappointed.
Going into this trip, I didn’t have the greatest relationship with nature. Early on in the trip, everyone went around talking about their various encounters with animals in nature and I had a whole lot of nothing to contribute. This mostly had to do with the fact that I’m actually allergic to mosquito bites so any time spent outside was time spent paranoid that I would be eaten alive by mosquitos. Being forced to be outside 95% of the day allowed me to get over my fear and actually embrace nature. What better place to do this than a place that has the highest density of biodiversity of any country in the world? I had a newfound desire to actually relax outside and just admire the beauty that Costa Rica had to offer.
I feel like I could go on and on about all the things that I learned at El Chontal and all the experiences that I had that were truly life changing but I should probably wrap this up by saying that these experiences wouldn’t be as great if I weren’t surrounded by the best people. I would go into detail about each and every one of you and gush about how amazing each of you are but I’ll save that for another time. For now, I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for being so great, so supportive, and so protective of each other. There was no moment in time in which I felt like I couldn’t do something because of the constant encouragement of the group. Everyone was so warm and inviting. It was truly like we were a family and as time goes on, I will cherish these memories and will always think about what a great group we had on this expedition. I really hope that we all keep in touch and plan a trip or two together again. With that being said, thank you Laura, Marc, John, Fernanda, Katie, Izze, Sarah, and Lesli. This trip would not have been the same without each and every one of you!
DAY 9
Reina "Sun" Ali (speaking for all of us)
Photo of the Day
Video of the Day
Memorable Moments
It’s hard to summarize them here but 3 of my favorite memories included dolphins, needlefish, and a very angry monkey. I think we all remember the last two pretty clearly but the first one was a little vague I admit, so for reference:
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The greatest thing I’ve ever seen had to have been the momma and baby dolphins circling our boat and coming so close to us as if they wanted us to play with them. Getting to see first hand the gentle touch of the momma dolphin as she rubbed her baby’s belly for comfort was an experience that I will never forget. The greatest part of it all was that a video was taken of the entire encounter so we can relive that moment as often as we want.
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Needlefish on their own are so funny, but getting to see them run around on top of the waters as they’re getting chased down by dolphins is such a unique experience. However, even more of a unique experience is getting to see the needlefish run full speed, straight into the side of the boat. I was almost certain this needlefish was either going to hop right into the boat or go right through the boat with the speed that it was going but either way, many of us let out a loud shriek which was immediately followed by a loud thud as the needlefish hit the side of the boat.
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Angry monkeys. Do I really need to remind anyone of what went down? On our day off we chose to go to the Corcovado National Park where we got to see many animals that we normally don’t get the chance to see. Personally, I absolutely love monkeys and luckily for us, we were able to see all 4 types of monkeys that were there. Our encounter with the White-Faced Capuchin Monkey is one that I will never forget. There was a group of them in the trees above us and it’s evident that they were getting a little annoyed that we were around them so me and a few others decided to move out of the way a bit so they weren’t directly above us. Before the entire group was able to do that, I saw one of the Capuchin Monkeys use two hands and their full force to break a very large branch so that it would fall straight to the ground. Luckily, those below were able to move away to avoid getting hit but it was quite the experience to witness!