The core of the Las Cruces Biological Station is the Wilson Botanical Garden, which features tropical plants from around the world.
The Garden is laced with trails.
This walk through the garden features ancient cone-bearing plants called cycads.
The terrace of the dining hall at Las Cruces.
The steps leading up to the dining hall.
Pleasant rooms for ecotourists …
… and private apartments for visiting scientists and course coordinators.
12:15 PM: A plate-level view of lunch on the terrace of the dining hall at Las Cruces.
After multiple days of beef, beef, beef, an all vegetarian lunch was welcome.Lunch today
The horticulturalist at the Garden explains the pecuiliar anatomoy of passionflower flowers.
The concrete terrace behind the dining hall is an ideal spot to watch the birds that gather at the feeding station, where fruit is laid out daily.
Green Honeycreeper (male)
Silver-throated tanagers.
Green Honeycreeper (female)
The blue-crowned motmot in all its resplendent glory.
A blue-crowned motmot investigates some bird bait (tasty watermelon).
A clay-colored robin shows up soon after to pick on two speckled tanagers.
A chestnut-mandibled toucan reaches for some food, high inside a tree.
A chestnut-mandibled toucan reaches for some food, high inside a tree.
The largest (and worst-smelling) flower in all of Costa Rica: Aristolochia grandiflora
An Atta (leaf-cutter) colony mound. Should you step near here, hundreds of large-jawed soldiers come out, ready to defend the colony.
More ants! Members of the genus “Enciron” (army ants) charge along a stick in the rainforest undergrowth.
3:41 PM: Profesora Elena leading a botany quiz, which happens the day after the botany tours.
5:23 PM: Natalie and Margaret measuring a buff-throated saltator.
5:36 PM: Bufferfly expert Katie leanrs how to hold a bird (a sturdy clay-colored robin) to be measured by Natalie.