Travel Blog Costa Rica

No more than 40 kilometres away from Costa Rica’s Capital San Jose, 4 kilometres past the city of Cartago on the road to Paraiso and Turialba, the Lankester Botanical Gardens are located. Officially founded in 1973, but the history of the botanical garden goes back to the 40’s of the twentieth century, when the British amateur botanist Charles H. Lankester started to study and collect epiphytic plants, working together with renowned scientists at that time. His private farm turned into a botanical garden with a incredible scientific value and paradise for botanic enthusiasts. After his death the gardens were placed in the care of the University of Costa Rica with the help of the American Orchid Society and the Stanley Smith Horticultural trust. Today the Lankester Botanical Gardens offer a unique opportunity to admire the many treasures of the rainforest such as orchids, bromeliads, heliconias, palms, and bamboos. The Lankester Botanical Garden is famous for its wide collection of orchids, since 15,000 of the 28,000 species worldwide can be seen in its gardens. Bromeliads take advantage of the ideal climate in the Central Valley around Cartago and all of the 200 native species are on display. The collection of more then 100 species of endemic heliconias comes with a spectacle of humming birds pollinating the plants and other birds eating the fruits, turning the botanical garden into a paradise for bird watchers. Bamboo is not a native plant to Central America and was introduced from Asia where it had been in use for centuries as a robust construction material. The plant flourishes now in Costa Rica’s tropical climate and the Lankester Botanical hosts the biggest bamboo collection of the country. Palm trees are an icon for the tropics. The trees provide a number essential products, such as palm oil, fruits (like ‘pejibaye’), shoots (the delicious palm hearts), construction materials (wood for construction and leaves for roofing). The Lancaster Botanical Garden has a collection of tall palms and their specific undergrowth and some decorative species as well. When the botanical garden was founded 35 year ago the six hectare area was mainly a pasture with abandoned crops. The introduced plants and native plants have adapted well to the pre-moutain climate and formed a unique new secondary forest eco-system with a rich animal life. Scientifically the Lankester Botanical Garden plays an important role in stimulating botanical research and documentation and publishes its own scientific journal ‘Lankesteriana’, distributed to hundreds scientific institutions worldwide.

The Fidel Tristan Jade Museum is located in Costa Rica’s capital. Located downtown San José you find the largest collection of jade artifacts of the Americas in one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful museums. The Costa Rica jade collection is on display from Monday to Friday on the 11th floor of the National Insurance Institute, which purchased the collection in 1973. By law this institute was given the authority to safeguard the artifacts and Costa Rica’s heritage and prevent the Costa Rica Jade Museum’s collection going abroad The English word jade that forms the center point of the Costa Rica Jade Museum’s collection, finds it’s origin in the Spanish term ‘piedra de ijada’, which means ‘loin stone’. It is a reference to the medicinal use of jade in curing diseases of the loin and the kidneys. Jade is the common name for the 2 different minerals neprhite and jadeite that were used in the same way. Jade is a relative soft material and can be worked on with for instance bambu to polish. The earliest jade finds are simple and functional such as buttons, arrow heads and beads. After the discoverie of metal aloys and the developing of skills to work with metal, jade lost it’s functional use. Because of it’s shere beauty, it remained popular for decorative purposes.The Costa Rica Jade Museum hosts a collection of jade objects, made by the native indigenous people. But it is not all jade in the museum. Besides this the Costa Rica Jade Museum offers a nice collection of pre-Colombian artifacts, such as ceramics and golden miniatures. The Jade Museum also gives Costa Rican artists the opportunity to exhibit their work and during the years has build up a fine contemporary collection as well. It’s absolutely worthwhile to take the time to wander through the five thematic rooms of the Costa Rica Jade Museum. It will make you familiar with the origin, development and history of Costa Rica’s pre-Columbian ancestors. But there is something else that might surprise you in the Costa Rica Jade Museum. One of the unexpected features is it’s location of the Costa Rica Jade Museum on the 11th floor, which offers a spectacular view of San José and the surrounding mountains of the Central Valley. So when you are visiting San José, a visit to the Costa Rica Jade Museum is definitely a must.