We spent a long day in the bus today, transferring from the hot and humid Caribbean lowlands to the cooler and drier uplands.  The scenery along the way was spectacular as we crossed the eastern mountain range into central Costa Rica and then climbed into the western range.

Flower lovers beware!  This post is all about orchids!

We stopped along the way at the University of Costa Rica’s orchid research centre, the Lankester Garden.  Sixteen hundred varieties of orchids are housed at the garden amidst a total of 3,000 other species native to Costa Rica.  The visit gave my macro lens another great workout.  Here are some of my favourite orchids.

I love these orchids for their delicacy.  The cascading blossoms look like little angels, while the purple blossoms look like little dolls.

I love these orchids for the blast of colour they provide.

I like the orange blossoms, and the orchid in the top right for all the world looks like a dog to me!

These two orchids are interesting.  One is a carnivore while the other looks like there is a little ghost living inside.

This final collection of orchids are merely beautiful!  We didn’t see all 1600 in bloom of course.  You may thank your lucky stars!

A few posts back my friend Myrna asked if I would provide a bit of information about my camera equipment.  Here it is!  I travel with:

• a Nikon D7100 intermediate level DSLR camera
• an 18-140 mm lens which is my workhorse lens
• a 70-300 mm telephoto lens
• a 10-24 mm wide angle lens
• a 40 mm f2.8 macro lens
• a speedlight for night photography

plus polarizing filters, chargers, a spare battery and my MacBook Air.  I do not travel lightly!  I have used everything but the wide angle lens on this trip.  But there is still time …

I will leave you with my favourite orchid photo.  I hope you enjoy these photos.  It was certainly fun to have access to these flowers and to be able to shoot them at will.  Till next time!