A sea turtle at Kew

I visited Kew Gardens to see the orchid festival in the Princess of Wales Conservatory. The display was of many orchids from Costa Rica and there was also quite a bit of information about the country, some of their animals and how they are trying to preserve their forests etc.
There were various animals made from plant matter…various leaves, bark, lichen, moss, seeds etc. I really liked these sea turtles . There were also sloths and bats!

However although the individual varieties of  orchids were lovely we were a little disappointed with some of the supposedly spectacular displays so I have not blipped them.

Coincidentally I was in Costa Rica at about this time 10 years ago doing a charity bike ride in Central America …Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. ( for the Genesis Research Trust) and a couple of days ago I had  started to reorganise a reunion for some of the people I met on that ride and have kept in contact with.

I do remember there being lovely flowers in Costa Rica and we saw sloths in trees occasionally as we cycled past!

We had a very nice coffee and pastry in the newly refurbished Botanical Brasserie……it is so much nicer than the Orangery or any of the others.