We visited the Orchid Garden in Santa Elena. They offer guided tours in both English and Spanish, which we highly recommend.
When you think of orchids, you probably think about these cultivated varieties that you can buy. However, our talented guide, a biologist from Venezuela who has resettled here in Costa Rica, showed us how varied wild orchids are!
The key to identifying an orchid in the wild is to look for their repeated structure, shown here.
And orchids can be really tiny! Many of them here in Costa Rica hide on the undersides of leaves to stay protected from wind and rain. Without our guide, we would have missed seeing most of these tiny beauties!
But perhaps the coolest thing we saw there was a bright green iridescent bee that was pollinating one of the orchids. Our guide told us that many orchids only have one kind of insect as a pollinator, and that the develop really specific strategies that use specific colors and scents to lure the pollinators in.
So if you’re looking for something to do in Santa Elena, check out the Orchid Garden. But be sure to go on the guided tour!
Leave a Reply