The Wonders of Costa Rica (Pt 1)

Hello! Welcome back to the blog! In this new series will be talking about my experiences in Costa Rica. Compared to Galapagos, just one 5 hour flight and we made it there! The area we stayed in was near a peninsula, and just a 1-2 boat ride could take us to the neighboring country of Nicaragua! We were introduced to all the unique plants and lush rainforests as well as the kind-hearted peoples. So now, let's dive in!

Right after we landed we went to sleep, after all we had to rest up to prepare for a morning full of hiking. We started our trip off strong with multiple walks and hikes through the famous and mystical rainforests of Costa Rica. Throughout these hikes we saw vibrant plants and fruits, much different to those you see in the United States. Some of those vibrant plants I was able to take some close pictures of, and here they are!

This plant kind of resembles a roasted pepper! When finding the name of this plant I never would've guessed that it is called an expanded lobster claw! I know right? An expanded lobster claw? Nevertheless we spotted these guys when we were hiking through the beautiful rainforest. It's a nice bit of orange in between all of green of the surrounding nature!

As hard as I tried I couldn't find out the name of this plant! It does resemble a rambutan, however the color doesn't match. These little guys were everywhere on the ground wherever you went! If you can figure out the name of this little guy let me know in the comments for this post!

This flower also has an incredibly strange name, drum roll please.....say hello to the pinecone ginger flower! Yup, that's right! These gorgeous flowers display incredible colors of pink, orange and yellow! They look so different compared to the regular daisies and sunflowers you spot in America!

Different plants have different methods for defense, this tree grows spikes to prevent small animals and/or critters from stealing their fruits! These trees are most commonly called pochote trees!

These were some neat leaves we spotted. These are called Columnea Consanguinea! As you can see, their most distinctive feature are their red marks. It almost looks like these leaves are bleeding!

Look at all of that moss! Everywhere we looked was moss because of the rain that allows these rainforests to be so luscious and thick!

Can you guess what this is? This is a dragonfruit in the making! These cacti are called pitaya. They grow on different plants and grow quite large as well. Because they climb onto other plants, they have given themselves the name of 'the climbing cactus'.

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed! This post was a little shorter, but don't worry, the next few will have more for us to explore! See you then! :)