Because this was spring break and our second to last week in San Jose, we had a few more activities planned than usual. On Tuesday, Clark was due to present at the technical center in Cartago, so I took that opportunity to ride with him to tour the botanical garden while he was at his commitment. I'm happy the kids chose to accompany me to this beautiful place. The garden is organized in "sub-gardens". Maybe someday I will know the names of all these plants. It was spectacular to view the types of plants in one place that we had seen already around all of Costa Rica plus a few extra related species. I have included a limited number of images in this post. The rest are in the "Flora y Fauna" post for Lankester for those who take a special interest in plants.
Lankester is operated by the University of Costa Rica and is not a huge place. We saw it all in about 2 hours and the trail went in a counterclockwise direction. The first exhibit was the orchid garden which is what Lankester is famous for. They have more types of orchids and new breeds than any garden in the Central America and the Caribbean.
The Japanese Garden was donated by Japan and is the only one that officially exists is Costa Rica. It was a special place for me because I have a special connection with orchids through my mom and grandma. My grandmother also worked tirelessly developing her own Japanese garden exhibit in her master garden. It was exciting to let my kids experience something like this, especially in a foreign place.
View from the mountains above Cartago. The view of San Jose from here is gorgeous.
Driving through Cartago, there were these stoplights that can operate either green or red, depending on the traffic. If there is a red X above the lane, it is an on-coming lane but if there is a green X, it is a clear lane. The number of lanes can be adjusted this way.
Costa Rican flag in front.
Jardin Botanical de Lankester
The first exhibit was the orchid garden. Rosabel discovered these orchids smelled like lemon creme sandwich cookies.
Unique
This bromeliad was near the entrance. There was a substantial bromeliad garden as the last exhibit.
The second exhibit on the trail was the fabulous Japanese garden.
Bamboo lines the trails.
A pano of the garden. It was nestled behind stands of bamboo to give it an isolated feel as if we were in the Japanese countryside.
A coy pond in the Japanese garden
My grandma tried so hard to get lichens to grow on her lanterns. She had me paint them with yogurt in hopes lichens would appear.
A brick path leading out of the Japenese garden
The third exhibit was a succulent garden. There were so many I had never seen before! I wish Audrie could have seen it. She loves succulents.
Here is the fern garden.
An ornamental banana?
Near the end of the trail is the research center. At Lankester, they propagate new sub-types of orchids, and this is looking into the lab.
An interesting sculpture near the bromeliad garden.
My grandmother had a similar sculpture in her garden. I hope to develop a garden someday and include a lady statue.
Before heading out, I had to get a selfie with the second flower I remember claiming as my favorite. These were my favorite for years...the phalaenopsis orchid. My prom corsage was made with these. They are difficult to use in floral displays because of their delicate nature.
The orchid nursery.
When Clark picked us up, we headed into Cartago to see the two church sites on my wish list. First was the ruins of Cartago. This is also named "the church that couldn't be built" because so many natural disasters kept destroying the partially finished church. Finally, the people gave up and turned into a historic site and garden. This angel statue is in the square in front of the ruins.
In the square, there was a huge flock of pigeons. People could feed them a little corn and actually catch the pigeons. Many children were participating, and parents had their phones out trying to snap pictures.
This lovely boy caught one and share it with Craig.
Rosabel wasn't successful but she touched them. The trick was to come up from behind the birds while they were distracted with the corn.
There is a spring there that is considered holy and people can buy the water in bottles that resemble the Negrita. Clark was fascinated by this and now we have our own little Negrita. There are displays of all the tokens people have left there and we saw people washing parts of their body with the water. Also, people would kneel down at the entrance to the chapel and scoot walk on their knees to the front altar while praying. Read more about it here. Later in the week, when we got gas, we saw a huge Negrita bottle in the attendant's box and we began recognizing the Negrita bottles in all sorts of places.
When we returned from Cartago, Clark and I went to collect the keys for my parents Airbnb, which was a short way up the mountain on a ranch.
We saw this hornets' nest.
Some interesting bushes outside their Airbnb bus. This reminds me of Muppets on Fragglerock or those characters from Dr. Seuss with the frizzy hair poofs.
The flowers of the week. These lilies are HUGE! As big as Clark's hand.
I finally saw these round zucchinis that the cooks used on some dishes I had eaten in the restaurants.
Before my parents arrived, I met up with Christine and Andrea for pupusas and decided to try this sweet tamale.
I successfully drove some of my peeps home from the San Jose airport! Happy to be together again.
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