We are at Land Sea Services in Golfito. What a nice place this is. To see it, go to their web site at: http://www.marinaservices-yachtdelivery.com/.

Today we went to a botanical garden located about 20 miles from the boat on a farm owned by the grandson of the cruisers club we are anchored in front of. What we thought was a 2 hour tour of a garden turned into a 5 hours and two meals with education on natural remedies for anything from curing cancer, lowering your blood pressure, and getting rid of cracked feet. We tasted several different fruits and flowers and watched bananas being harvested. We had a palm oil sauce we ate with fish and potato's and drank different types of juices grown in the garden When we inquired about the tour we were told it would cost $170 round trip from the marina and included lunch. That sounded like to much so we were told we could take the bus to save the transportation and just to leave a donation when we left. That the transportation was most the expense. The bus for 4 was $8 the cab for 4 was $2 and the cab all the way back was $8. Total transportation charge for 4 was $18. That plus a donation was a lot less than $170. Once again we are learning to ask questions and get the going rate and the price for gringos is always more than the local rate. I know I say this often but today was a plus day for Kokomo. Tonight we are attending a cruisers pot luck at the dock. 4 boats will participate, 3 from Washington and 1 from California. Washington boat are dominating our trip threw South America.

Denny

The Paradise Tropical Garden - Robert Beatham took us on a tour of his garden. The garden was started in 2001 where African Oil Palm Trees were once planted. The trail through the garden has wide, clean paths and plant species are well labeled. We saw many tropical plants and flowers in the garden such as: heliconias, bromeliads, gingers, orchids, palms, bananas, bamboos, exotic vegetables, fruits, spices and medicinal plants. It was a short walk to where there are African oil palms growing and the Junior showed us how the bunches of fruit are harvested from the tall palms.

Below is a photo of red banana's



Here are some fussy strawberries that are delicious!



We return from our walk to a table set up with an exposition of tropical fruits and remedies.

Roberts daughter-in-law served us breakfast that was very delicious!



We tried many different tropical fruits; such as, South American zapote, bread nut, peach palm, cassava, sugar cane, cacao, etc., and Robert showed us many remedies made from tropical plants It was very educational and worth the trip if you are visiting Costa Rica!

Becky

Here is a video of the gardens.