San Isidro de El General is located in the south central region of Costa Rica. The city is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges including the Talamancas and Cerro Chirripó which at 3,819 meters (12,529 feet), is Central America's highest peak. Since this area sits at a high elevation, the humidity was much lower and the air was cool and refreshing. I've been wanting to visit San Isidro for a long time but until recently the highway going south of Quepos was not paved and it took forever to drive there. Now that the highway is paved, the ride to San Isidro is only 1 hour and 15 minutes from Quepos. It was a nice drive south to Dominical where we turned off the highway and headed into the mountains towards Pérez (what the locals call San Isidro).

Tree ferns

The road over the mountains

Our first view of San Isidro

With the zoom

This is a very fertile area with many farms growing vegetables, fruit, flowers and palms. There are many nurseries in this area and most of the local nursery stock in Quepos comes from here.

Bananas growing down a hillside

Coming into town

4 lane highway! This is one of the nicest stretches of road in Costa Rica.

Neighborhood off the main highway

You can see this church from far away...

Central Park in front of the church. I didn't take many photos of the park but there were lots of Adonidias, Bismarckias, Foxtails, and a few others.

We hooked up with a friend of a friend who took us to his home up in the mountains about 30 minutes outside of town. They call their property "Jardines Secretos" and they have a couple cabinas for rent and some hiking trails through the gardens and property. He took us on a tour of the gardens which included a couple small ponds.

Musa velutina

Broms

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Interesting Bromeliad

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We hiked up to a wooden viewing platform for these view of the mountains

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Heading back down through the garden trail

Heliconia

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Blue ginger

It was cool enough up here to grow Azaleas!

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Hot Lips!

Heliconia

Close up

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Zamia

Chamaedorea

Brom flower

More broms

another Heliconia

Bananas