The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) is one of of the world’s premier centers dedicated to research and graduate education in agriculture and the management, conservation, and sustainable use of natural resources. During the plantation tour, a guide will help familiarize you with the extensive plantations of CATIE, and the significant contributions CATIE has made towards the research and education of tropical agriculture. A guide will give you an informative tour through some of CATIE’s fifty gardens, where you can appreciate a variety of tropical plants from distinct parts of the world. The plantations of major relevance are: café, cacao, pejibayes, tropical fruit and forest species. As you trek through the plantations and gardens you may notice a variety of wildlife that lives within, such as toucans, oropendulum birds, butterflies and lizards. A guide will take you on a stroll through CATIE’s special botanical garden where you will find the century old Kapok tree, towering stalks of bamboo, dripping orchids and bromeliads from the trees and many other colorful and fruiting plants.