Else Kientzler Botanical Gardens

Recently we visited the Else Kientzler Botanical Gardens, near the town of Sarchi. Before reaching the gardens, we passed by what seemed like acres of greenhouses. This is Innovaplant  a company that grows all sorts of ornamental plants that are shipped around the world. They also have a laboratory for developing new species of plants.

We were the only visitors at the time we were there - I imagine because it is the off season and we went during the week. So we had the entire place to ourselves and could stroll around at our own pace. Admittance fees are modest. Apparently you can have a guided tour and there is also a restaurant for lunch. This is a popular place to hold a wedding and we saw tents being taken down from a recent one. The venue is beautiful of course.

We didn’t go on all the trails because some were not suited to our footwear. Perhaps we’ll visit again and see what we missed the first time. So many species of plants/trees and everything is marked with it’s name. Highly recommend these gardens - gorgeous.

Our Bountiful Backyard

We have a lovely, very quiet backyard at our new house. I put my hammock under the orange trees and out of the sun. It’s so peaceful reading a book there.

We also have a lot of fruit trees, as do most properties in Costa Rica or so it seems. At our previous house, we had mangoes, bananas and oranges - although the oranges were tart and didn’t peel easily. They were good for juicing though.

Now we have mangoes, bananas, coconuts and oranges - the kind with loose skins so they peel very easily. I guess they are mandarins.

Immature orange:

Mature orange:

Coconut tree:

Mangoes:

Bananas - not sure how we’ll get this bunch down. It’s up very high.

Weather in Hacienda El Paseo, June, 2018

We moved from Vista Atenas to Hacienda El Paseo on April 1, 2018. Weather records have been kept since that date but this is the first summary of those records. During April, May and June the weather moved from the end of the dry season to the midst of the "green" or rainy season.

Daytime highs are now generally lower - all because of significantly more cloud cover. All along, the "feels like" temperatures have been quite moderate. As the air temperature rises and gets quite hot where we are located (e.g. 92°F / 33°C on one day in early May) it is typically accompanied by a significant drop in relative humidity. The result is a "feels like" temperature ("heat index" in the U.S.; "humidex" in Canada) which is below the actual air temperature. In the interior of Costa Rica where we have lived, there is rarely a stifling combination of heat and humidity as can happen in the eastern U.S. and Canada.

With regard to rainfall in June, there were two days with over 2 inches, 5 days with between 1 and 2 inches, and 12 days with less than an inch. (1 inch = 2.54 cm / 2 inches = 5.08 cm).

The proximity of Hacienda El Paseo to the center of downtown Grecia can be seen here.