Thursday, April 5, 2012

La Paz Waterfall Gardens: Orchids

Our first stay in Costa Rica was north of the San Jose capital in Vara Blanca at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens & Peace Lodge. We wanted to ease the kids into the trip with something fairly "touristy" to start with. As opposed to spotting wild flora and fauna, everything there was nicely packaged in aviaries, butterfly gardens and the like.

That said, the place was nowhere near as cheesy as we'd feared. Our room was gorgeous and comfortable, the grounds were stunning and the animals and plants all seemed extremely well cared for. Rather than cut corners, the facility had an abundance of very visible and diligent staff. People always seemed to be cleaning, painting, fixing, etc.

One section of the facility was devoted to orchids, which I know almost nothing about other than that they make for pretty striking pictures. With nothing much to do each night after it got dark around 6 p.m., it was easy to get a good night's sleep and wake up early enough one morning to take advantage of the soft light at 6 a.m. and shoot these.







2 comments:

Orontes said...

Have a great time in Costa Rica. I hope if you're near Nectandra, you get a chance to check it out. One of my best friends describes it as heaven.

http://www.nectandra.org/org/about.php

SteveHarbula said...

We didn't make it there, but that just gives us another reason to go back!