DAY 8-11  |  Esterillos oste
 

After another six hour day of travelling, we arrived at the Pacific coast in Esterillos Oeste! While there, we stayed with our friends the Murdochs, who used to live in California. They felt a calling to relocate to Costa Rica years ago to help out with an organization called Seeds Of Hope. The organization helps to prevent and combat sexual exploitation/trafficking, drugs, alcohol and violence.

Every day we would walk down the road to the beach and play in the warm waves. The beach was covered in unbroken shells, all varying in texture, shape, and size. One day on our walk back, we saw about 15 Macaws in the trees above us. They spread their red, yellow, and blue feathers and chased each other around the branches. Eventually, we looked back behind us and saw that many others were also stopped in their tracks at the sight of these birds. It was truly mesmerizing. After a long, eventful trip, it was refreshing to spend time with the Murdochs. We cooked dinner together, played with the kids, napped a lot and laughed a lot. We couldn’t have asked for a more well-rounded trip!

Fun fact of the day: Macaws are intelligent, social birds that often gather in flocks of 10 to 30 individuals. Their loud calls, squawks, and screams echo through the forest canopy. Macaws vocalize to communicate within the flock, mark territory, and identify one another. Some species can even mimic human speech. Flocks sleep in the trees at night, and in the morning they may fly long distances to feed on fruit, nuts, insects, and snails. Some species also eat damp soil, which may help to neutralize chemicals in their fruity diet and ease their stomachs. Macaws typically mate for life. They not only breed with, but also share food with their mates and enjoy mutual grooming. In breeding season, mothers incubate eggs while fathers hunt and bring food back to the nest.