Lankester Gardens and Pizza Adventure

On Friday, February 15 we took off early in the day to see the Lankester Gardens between Paraiso and Cartago.  The drive over was very pretty.  We stopped along the way at a scenic overlook - the Mirador Ujarras.

The Lankester Gardens are famous for their orchids.  They had huge greenhouses of orchids.

The posts in the greenhouses were covered with baby orchids.

Some of our favorite orchids.

This orchid smells like chocolate

Eric and I named these the "Space Alien" orchid

They had a few orchids in trees.  

We also saw the variety of orchid at the garden that I had seen along the road the other day and stopped to pick a couple of blooms.  So yes, we have seen orchids in the wild. 

The gardens also had several outdoor garden areas with a nice trail through them.  We really enjoyed all the bromiliads.

I did not however, enjoy the bee garden.  As we were going through the cactus garden area, I saw a cluster of bugs and called Eric over to look at them.  About the time I said "do they look like bees?" one of them stung me.  He said he was pretty sure they were bees as he laughed and ran away. 

After a stop at Wal-mart in Cartago, we headed to Orosi for some coffee.  We stopped at a different coffee shop and enjoyed an expresso.  The shop owner had several varieties of Costa Rican coffees to sample.  We, of course, had to buy some with a bit of a chocolate note to bring home to share.  We found the cutest sugar dish there that we hope will be fortuitous as we look for a new home.  

We ran across a barber shop and Eric stopped for a haircut from Ken, the barber.  He got an old-school haircut and loved it. 

After leaving, Orosi we stopped to look at the Rio Macho on our way out of town.  Eric thinks maybe he should live in Rio Macho. 

We stopped in La Alegria and went over the suspension bridge that connects the village of La Alegria with Orosi. 

We had planned on sharing a pizza for dinner with Michele, so on our way back through Cachi we stopped and called her to tell her we would piddle around for about 30 minutes and pick up the pizza she was to call in and have ready about 5:00.  We looked in the general store to compare prices.  You can get everything from a motorcycle to large and small appliances in there.  We didn't kill quite enough time so we stopped in the El Conquistador to check out the local watering hole.  It was very nice.  While we were there, a dog wandered in dragging his chain behind him.  At five, we headed over to the pizza place.  The barred gate was closed, but not locked, so we went on in.  We told the owner, who spoke no English that we were there to pick up a pizza.  He told us something in Spanish that ended with 5:30.  We assumed he said our pizza would be ready at 5:30.  We left and checked out the fruit stand, the butcher shop and the grocery store.  At the grocery store, the lady clerk told us "hace calor".  I translated for Eric "it's hot,"  he insisted that I had heard incorrectly and she really said "He was hot."  Finally at 5:30, we went back to the pizza place.  As we walked in, the owner handed us a menu and his phone rang.  He answered it and then handed it to us saying it was for us.  It was Michele saying that he had never answered his phone all this time and that we needed to order the pizza.  After another 10 minutes and a story in Spanish about someone going to Italy (we think), we got our pizza and headed home.  I am happy to report that the pizza was worth the wait and we really enjoyed getting to know more about the town of Cachi.