HOTEL BOUGANIINVILLEA, SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

Most of the crew sans Dave and Kath and moi

For our first three nights in Costa Rica we are staying at the Hotel Bougainvillea and enjoying our first full day in the country within the garden located here.

OUR BOTANICAL GARDEN

The 10 acres of botanical gardens is truly the jewel of the Bougainvillea’s hotel family, one of the main attractions of the hotel.

The great variety of tropical plants, including heliconias, bromeliads, orchids,and trees attract butterflies and birds which brighten the environment with their colors and sounds.

Featuring seven different colors of the Bougainvillea flower, our garden pays tribute to this flower which inspired the hotel’s name.

The National Gardening Association has recently given us an award as the best garden in Costa Rica. In our garden you can find small samples of the country's crops, such as coffee, cocoa, bananas, pineapple and papaya.

Also, there are several small ponds where we are working on preserving endangered frog species, such as Forreri’s Leopard frog, the Blue-sided tree frog, and the Brilliant forest frog.

Our garden is an ongoing project, it has taken us 28 years to get where we are but we aren’t stopping, we are constantly changing!

The Garden in numbers: 10 acres

+600 species:

• 22 types of bromeliads

• 157 tree species

• 17 palm species

• 51 different orchids

• 43 different ornamental foliage

• 34 wild herbs

• 47 types of ornamental flowers

• 29 types of lilies

• 28 types of heliconias and similar

• 47 types of cacti and succulents

• 34 types of creepers and climbers

• 8 types of ferns

• 28 types of heliconias

• 79 types of permanent shrubs

• 5 types of begonias

Costa Rica is a favorite destination for nature lovers from all over the world. Its diverse bird population is one of its main attractions. More than 850 species of birds have been identified so far in our country. Our garden is particularly attractive to birds because of its abundance of trees, flowers and shrubs. Hummingbirds, silly birds, tanagers, yellow chests, Pitanguas, among many others, are frequently seen. The “yigüirro”, our national bird, is one of the birds with the greatest presence in the gardens. You can also watch the tiny and fascinating hummingbirds, in constant motion.

The garden behind the tennis courts is the ideal place to see the “bobo” bird (momotus momota) of bluish-green body and long tail. The tropical tyrant or yellow chest bird, with its gray head and bright yellow chest, is one of our most common species.

Here is a list of the species we spotted in the hotel gardens:

1. Sharp shinned Hawk

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl

White winged Dove

Red-billed Pigeon

Orange-chinned Parrot

Crimson fronted Parakeet

Lesson’s [Blue-crowned] Motmot

Hoffman’s Woodpecker

Rufous tailed Hummingbird