why I love this country

I love plants.  I've always considered myself as a bringer of doom as far as plant life goes, but here in Costa Rica I am a green fingered goddess.  As long as I give things room to grow and leave them outside (and occasionally dump some coffee grounds or compost on them), then they flourish beautifully!  The juxtaposition of plant growth in Seattle compared with plant growth here is simply bizarre and leads me to wonder if this place really is magical.  Probably not, but what if...

Everywhere you go, there is greenery, and it rises up brightly like a song to the gods (too tacky? haha). However, one of my favorite green places is a botanical garden in the central valley, which I believe is owned and run by the biology department of the University of Costa Rica.  It has an entire room full of orchids, some of which you have to use a magnifying glass to properly view.  That's right, tiny anatomically perfect orchids exist, and they are no less beautiful than your average-sized orchid.  Below are some pictures I took the last time I was there.

This is one of those tiny orchids I was referring to; it was the size of the tip of my pinkie finger.  It was the smallest one I could get with my current lense, but there was a little area with tinier orchids and a magnifying class for viewing pleasure.  I wouldn't even have noticed them, if it weren't for my husband's uncle pointing them out (a botanist of sorts).

 water lilies!

 Another orchid, this one with a very interesting mechanism for pollination.  An insect lands on a petal, slides down into the "bowl" and then has to crawl back up, thus dragging pollen up with it.

This was some very thick bamboo. 

I found these beauties off to the side of the cactus garden!  I have no idea what they are, but they reminded me so much of pretty little lanterns. 

NOW do you understand why I love this place?!  The plant life is revitalizing!