Back from Costa Rica

[Liz M]

Thanks, Paul, there were a lot of rejects. Costa Rica is very photogenic and a pleasure to photo.

[Le Fakir]

Thanks for that Liz. yes, a lot higher than Essex - I think I am about 30m asl! I was hoping it may even go higher than that, so possibly be cold hardy enough to grow in SW Cornwall, SW Ireland or other milder, wet, western seaboard places. I think that far south, anything above 3000m things start to get interesting from a cold-tolerance point of view. Did you catch Gunnera insignis - that is a particularly handsome plant, I think.

From what I understood there, the local people told us that volcano Poas (where the photo of the striker Gunnera talamancana)
http://public.fotki.com/El-Fakir/cactus ... ncana.html
gets some freezing nights at the top (2700m) every year, but the temperature always gets positive during daytime. The higher volcanos (up to 3500m) will experiment some colder nights, but you're right: vegetation of this area must be quiet interesting from a cold tolerance point of view.
We spent 3 nights in a lodge at 2300m close to Volcano Poas: I couldn't remove my polar jacket (and I'm from Grenoble in the Alps!!!) during 1 day of rain and wind.. so chilly !!!

Liz, Nice pics of hummingbird.. so hard to catch on photo!!