WHAT: A walk around CATIE, its campus and its botanical gardens WHERE: Located in the heart of Costa Rica, 1 km south of the center of Turrialba on the highway so easily accessible HOW LONG: 2 hours for walking around on your own, unless you take a tour (upon request), then you'll need some extra time HOW MUCH: ₡2000,- for locals and $10,- for foreigners, just for the entrance, not the tour
South of Turrialba lies the very tranquil campus of CATIE, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center. Why is it over there? Well, some sixty years ago, the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Sciences planted some 4400 plants of some 400 species from all over the world in a botanical garden, to preserve and study them. Turrialba has a pleasant climate for conserving all of those things. Nowadays the center is also a place where people can obtain their postgraduate degree and where scientists study fields like agriculture, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
Now, this all sounds rather stuffy perhaps, but a visit to the area isn’t like that at all. It feels like you’re in some American campus movie, with students everywhere cycling around the serene roads or walking their dogs on the freshly mowed grass. We thought our unplanned stopover at the site was therefore rather pleasant.
You can easily spent an afternoon over here, especially if you’re into birding. Within the pond a giant bamboo hosts nestling anhingas, a cattle of egrets and boat-billed herons. It’s basically a very fluffy piece of green, due to all the noisy birds sticking out of the tree.
If you’d wish to learn more about the great diversity of the trees and the fruit plantations within the botanical garden, you’d better take a guided tour. Inform in advance whether this is possible. Inside you can see for yourself that almost every plant in the garden has a purpose and use. Plus it’s fun to behold how it all grows: coffee, cacao, pejibayes, herbs, sugar cane, citrus fruits, plantains, macadamia nuts, pineapples and many other exotic species from tropical countries. Walking around (or driving even) without a guide is still worth it, but the garden is a bit run down and not all the plants are labeled, so you wouldn’t get the proper information you need to know what you see.
All in all we thought that a visit to CATIE was a nice way to deepen our knowledge of tropical botany a bit and to see some pretty birds. Don’t expect a lot of excitement, above all it’s and a good place to chill out a bit and to wander around.
Here’s where to go!
Jwsoule
March 2, 2020 at 12:15 am
What is name of palm tree that attracts montazuma o … bird . Tree has hanging nests near cate entrance??? Also tell me nfull name of bird (black and yellow)