outdoors

In our national parks along the Costa Rican border, orchid poaching is a lucrative criminal enterprise. However, you don't have to trek through the high boonies to encounter cool orchids in Panama. In the city, you may want to visit the lobby of the Hotel Bristol to check out their orchid display. You may want to go out to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort to see their orchid propagation operation, which is mainly for the purpose of adding a flowery touch to the rooms in that upscale hotel. Or you may want to show up a few minutes early for one of the Tuesday noon science lectures at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center's Tupper Center, in Ancon where the old Tivoli Hotel used to be, in order to appreciate their wonderful little orchid garden.

There are a number of other good orchid gardens around the country, some public and some private, and some businesses dedicated to propagating the arboreal plants for sale. If you get to El Valle, go to El Nispero and, among the other attractions there, enjoy their orchid house.

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