Colombia, the sequel

[Cindy Adair]

Above are links to topics from the wonderful 2018 Colombia adventure with the IPS.  

Today’s topic is my return to this beautiful country 4 years later.

When I got the chance to join up with the Heliconia Society International trip Nov 27-Dec 12, 2022 in and around Cali, I was delighted. They divided the travel into a pre trip (jungle adventures), conference at the Quindío Botanical Garden and the post tour adding more typical cultural experiences. 

https://www.heliconia.org

I couldn’t choose so went for them all.

They had a few challenges accepting international payments so I had my first experience making a wire transfer. Too little notice to post their sign up on PT but I will do so in the future. 

Yes there were palms, but by no means were they the focus.

The aroids and Heliconias and amazing birds kept me captivated.  

Lots of photos of these to come if you stay tuned. And even more palms.

I also loved spending time with 70 people at the conference and less than 20 of us on the pre and post tours from :

Ivory Coast Africa
Surinam
Panama
Aruba
El Salvador 
Puerto Rico
Hawaii
Australia
Colombia
Costa Rica
Brazil (virtual)
India (virtual)
Oregon 
Florida
Peru
Brunei (virtual).

English is the official language of this club and Carla Black, the president and others helped translate Spanish as needed.

Our first hotel became familiar as we returned in the middle and at the end of the trip. We even got the same room assignments each time which made me happy as my room had good hot water!

Beautiful murals everywhere in Colombia and this one featured Rex the resident German Shepard.

Rex patrolled constantly, but finally warmed up to some of us by the end.

This was one of our comfortable buses that managed very well on roads whose width seemed more designed for the ubiquitous motorcycles.

5,000 pesos equaled about $1 USD and overall prices there were quite a bargain and food was great!

Yes, more palms along the road near the hotel, but nothing too exciting.

Across the street gave a hint of the mountains though.

We left the next day for Queremal with stops along the way to search for Heliconias!

Gustavo Morales an expert on Heliconias joined us and he and Carla ( also an expert who grows a couple of hundred kinds of Heliconias in Panama) directed the bus driver to stop whenever they saw good territory.

Seeds and herbarium specimens were collected.

 

 

[Cindy Adair]

El Queremal honors a lovely flower new to me:

https://www.nybg.org/blogs/science-talk/2014/03/the-rose-of-el-queremal-a-not-so-modern-love-story/

There is a sculpture in the center of the little town with some real flowers too.

[Cindy Adair]

We all smiled when we saw the line of Tok toks that were our transportation to places  even our intrepid bus driver could not navigate. 

Such fun!

More exploring all day.

Lots of Aroids which made me wish that Dr. Tom Croat from Missouri Botanical garden had been joining us to identify them all!
 

Perhaps later I will post some of the aroids in the “Tropical Plants other than Palms” Subforum in hopes of help with names.

 

By then my fellow travelers knew I liked palms and they delivered this cut piece to me telling me it was a Prestoea of some sort. What do you think?

 

You can probably see that the hills were quite steep but so much to see easily along the road. I was glad I had brought my hiking boots!

This one below immediately went on my wish list and pretty sure it is Philodendron verrucosum but a nicer form than many I have seen for sale. The reverse side was always red as were the furry petioles.

I wanted one of each! Instead I took photos. 

[Cindy Adair]

Palms, orchids, gesneriads, cycads, ferns and so much more! Some of us focused on the Heliconias but most loved everything. I know we all saw plants that no one could identify!

We settled in for another night at this charming hotel.

I loved this Rhipsalis with pretty white flowers.

 

 

Sobralia orchids all along the road.

[Cindy Adair]

More exploration the next day using the bus.

 

 

 

I was told the heliconia below is H.titanum which seems very appropriate given its size!

 

Slipper orchids blooming roadside!

No idea of this one’s name.

A fun detour when a man wanted to show us his cut flower Anthurium farm.

Giant Colocasias on a very steep hill.

We stopped for a multi course lunch/dinner surrounded by more lovely murals

and entertained by visiting hummingbirds.

The lighting was bad for photos, but I promise better shots at the Quindío Botanical garden.

I had never thought about Hawaii not having hummingbirds until the IPS Biennial.
 

On this revisit to Colombia the Australian attendees reminded me that despite the many lovely species in that country, no hummingbirds there either. So for some this trip was their first viewing.

 

This was our last day in El Queremal but we made time to visit a nearby nursery. Again so many plants I would have bought had it been possible to bring them legally to PR.

After a rather long bus ride and a wait for clearance of a landslide we eagerly hopped on Bruhitas to take us to San Cipriano.

https://seecolombia.travel/blog/2015/03/riding-the-brujitas-in-san-cipriano/amp/

Quite a novel method of transportation to me which involved train tracks and motorcycles. I am pretty sure the lack of release forms would disallow such fun rides in many countries.

Despite bad lighting, note the bird nests! I made a plan to return the next morning for a better photo but could not comply.

Sadly I was unable to explore this lovely place due to a 24 hour bug that happily affected no one else. Also great that I was recovered in time for the return Bruhita trip the next day!

[Cindy Adair]

We were lucky to have a guided tour of an amazing seed bank in Palmira.

The security, architecture and technology were quite impressive.

 

[Cindy Adair]

We spotted some bright red flowers that we could not at first identify.
 

Amazingly our bus made a U turn at the next light allowing us another view and then turned into the parking lot. 

It turned out to be our lunch spot at a private club which featured a little arbor. 
 

The other worldly turquoise jade vine most of us knew

but the bright red flowers were so vivid we all reached for our cameras.

One of our Hawaii attendees knew the species Mucuna novoguineensis which is much brighter than the more orange M. bennettii or the terribly painful/itchy Pika Pika M. pruriens in Puerto Rico.

We stopped at a fruit stand/mini market which is always interesting to me.

Very clean, cheap prices.

Milk in bags.

Penguin sweets.

[ASHCVS]

These are great. Thank you Cindy!

[Cindy Adair]

You are welcome ASHCVS.

Today I will post about Reserva Nirvana. We all loved this place!

 

Even the walk from the parking lot to the main entrance gave us planting ideas.

I had never seen bromeliads on top of a chain link fence for example.

Lots of Heliconias and Aroids and even some palms!

 

So many I would have liked to take home!

[Cindy Adair]

I would have been happy exploring all day!

More to come tomorrow!

[Cindy Adair]

We saw a single Geonoma atrovirens in a pot for decades. 

I’d like names for this distinctive flowers?

 

 

More big Philodendron verrucosum, beautiful front or back!

Our tour guide’s brother creates furniture and other smaller art out of wood. 

So beautiful!

I doubt any of us were planning to buy anything, but in the end, quite a few of us ultimately did not resist. 

Something soothing about touching these one of a kind creations made from very old trees that ultimately had to be removed.

For the moment my purchase is hanging out of reach of my cat who looks quite innocent in this photo.

She has so far ignored it, but I want to introduce it slowly lest she decide it’s a scratching post…

Going through airport security in San Juan to take my last flight home, I was questioned and it was carefully inspected. I was told sometimes drugs are put inside such items.

Reserva Nirvana sold plants in pots that of course I could not buy.

I can recommend the restaurant with delicious food too, so add this stop if you head to Colombia!

[Cindy Adair]

We stopped at a mall to add some additional attendees. All decorated for Christmas including an area enticing children to play in the “snow” which turned out to be salt!

The next day we arrived at the same botanical garden that I briefly visited with the IPS four years ago.

The presumptive rhinoceros beetle sculpture reminded me of the evil palm eating insects on my farm in Puerto Rico.

Geonoma frontinensis with a nice label hinted that other palms might also be identified but alas most were nameless.

I loved being able to wander around this botanical garden intermixed with heliconia speakers over three days.

I’ll add highlights in upcoming posts for those like me who use these plants to help prevent landslides and add no care beauty while attracting hummingbirds and making great floral arrangements!

[Dypsisdean]

I was waiting for you to finish before commenting - but this seems never ending. What great vicarious viewing. And what a great country if you like biodiversity. If only it was easy and legal to throw plants in boxes and ship them to our gardens.

Thanks for all your effort to take us along on your adventure.

[Cindy Adair]

I am saving many of the palm photos for later posting in the main Subforum Discussing Palms Worldwide in hopes of getting names for many of them.

However I saw only one Sabinaria in this garden.

It did have a label with both the Latin name and a common name “Girasol”

Some paths had handrails of bamboo and I took closeups hoping to do the same with some of my way too big clumps of bamboo  which are frequently in the way.

There is a maze.

They had some nice Thunbergia mysorensis also of personal interest since I have pots of this aggressive vine awaiting construction of a metal arbor.

Pretty, but definitely not a plant to leave unsupervised in the tropics…

I did not take the separate workshop on Heliconias in floral arrangements but happily got a demonstration before one of the meals. Note also the Sabinaria mural.

Those of us who can grow Heliconias might want to copy these designs.

The Museum of Palm Ethnobotany might have received some funding from the IPS in the past to upgrade this exhibit?
Regardless the information is very nicely presented.

 

[Cindy Adair]

I loved this Geonoma atrovirens!!

The recurring theme of creatively using bamboo is shown here at lunch.

 

Look how the soup is presented by resting the bowl on a stand made out of bamboo.

And see the recycling and trash containers too.

The garden called attention to a centerpiece palm.

There was actually a sign somewhere that said not to hug the trees, but I did so anyway below for this photo.

Note how much this gorgeous Attalea has grown since the poster above was printed. 

I remember seeing it when the IPS visited and there is a photo in the links at the beginning of this topic.

This chair was also featured previously.

 

Look carefully to see the nocturnal agouti that looks a bit like a giant Guinea pig.

Many lovely Heliconias!

Some photos below of our hotel showing old tires used to delineate parking spots. 

And bottles strung together to make a wall /curtain.

More nice murals at the hotel-also a theme in Colombia.

And a rooster collection a the hotel breakfast area.

Don’t miss this 48 second video below of hummingbirds swarming one of the many feeders. Multiple species. 

[Cindy Adair]

This day was the beginning of the post conference tour. I was happy to return to Salento to view the Ceroxylon quindiuense which were a high point of the IPS Biennial.

We had a tour beginning at a restaurant below the mature palms. 

Our tour guide did not know which species but clearly they are planting lots of Ceroxylons which I was happy to see.

Pretty art even on the trashcans.

I was told that they transplant palm seedlings as well as starting some from seeds. 
 

We admired this pretty fuschia (?) as well.

I was happy to enjoy a trek to the river especially seeing lots of baby Ceroxylons!

I was not tempted to get into the rough cold water in the video below.

 

Nice flowers too.

Later we posed for a group photo inside this giant hand sculpture. To me it felt a little like the ‘before’ scene in a horror movie where the hand comes to life.

Happily it was just my overactive imagination and we headed up the steep steps in the background after the photo.

[Cindy Adair]

Afterwards we had another memorable lunch including delicious desserts and coffee before heading to explore the shopping in the pretty town of Finlandia.

I did not expect to see Iris growing here next to the pretty groundcover I would like to try in Puerto Rico.

Of course just looking at the plant stores since International rules would not allow bringing back to the US.

 

 I wish some of the murals had been for sale as posters.

Then we traveled to await dusk for the Quimbaya festival of lanterns and candles.

Lots of food but I was so full from lunch that I did not have room to try them.

Big crowds of happy people!

Heliconias on these lanterns.

Palms here!

Lots of lights and sparkles as you can see in this short video.

 

 

[Cindy Adair]

Some of us enjoyed morning walks from our hotel in Santa Rosa de Cabal. Pretty decorations once again.

The focus of our first day here was a multi hour coffee tour.

This is a big operation rather than the small single family tours I had been on in the past elsewhere. 

Even a few palms!

The tour started with some information about Coffea arabica seedlings.

Then we moved to a demonstration of cherry drying. I liked the design so took several photos with the plan for building a simple version to dry my own coffee in Puerto Rico.
We walked a bit to pick coffee ourselves.

[Cindy Adair]

We were given a basket and told to pick only the fully ripe (red) cherries.

For those of you unfamiliar, the pretty white flowers don’t smell like coffee at all. To me they are reminiscent of honeysuckle. 
 

Oh the hats and panchos were compliments of the Heliconia society and artfully displayed along with other souvenirs in our very first hotel rooms.

For those who did not bring them, the coffee farm supplied some so that we more or less matched.

We saw some of the processing and heating and finally of course got to taste freshly made coffee!

It was lunchtime and we walked to a beautiful restaurant on site.

Notice all the things made from bamboo!

Yes a palm inside.

Once again we got our choice off the menu and left stuffed.

[Cindy Adair]

That night we went to the Santa Rosa de Cabal hot springs.
 

The converging waterfalls along the walk to the hot springs were awe inspiring, but I had left my phone on the bus so no photos. 
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1641481-d3603155-Reviews-Termales_Santa_Rosa_de_Cabal_Balneario-Santa_Rosa_de_Cabal_Risaralda_Department.html

The next morning some of us chose to have breakfast at the farmers market in town to absorb more of the local color. Lots of fun.

More pretty flowers on the walk.

 

And Las Palmas minimarket.

Our bus took us to Finca Romelia, a beautiful collection of orchids, bonsai, aroids and much more! 
 

We walked (downhill) through a grove of oranges while enjoying the view.
No that’s not a palm. Maybe Schizolobium parahyba?

Pretty Globba.

Specimen Prosthechea? orchid overwhelmingly fragrant.

Many lovely Vanda orchids.

The main house where we ate a delicious buffet lunch.

Collection of church models.

I loved this Aroid.

We were not tired of watching the birds! This time I got to see another mot mot, my favorite.

And more hummingbirds!

 

 

 

 

[Cindy Adair]

Only two more days of touring to cover and I am determined to finish this travel story in 2022, so stay tuned.

[Cindy Adair]

The Cali Botanical Garden is under renovation and closed to the public until next Spring. They were very kind to allow us to visit anyway. Their tour guides were very welcoming.

We also had armed escorts at all times there.  I don’t know whether they were to make sure we behaved (and did not take any plants/seeds or go off the trails) or to protect us?

 

I liked the Aroid design cut outs in the entrance fencing, especially with the Aroid below.

Iriartea deltoidea

 

A baby Manicaria saccifera

Another unnamed Aroid I wanted…

 

There were buildings under construction but a big pond with a collection of water hyacinths seemed complete.

Our constant garden companions relaxing.

They escorted us along the river to our bus even though it seemed a very safe area and no way to take a wrong turn on the only road by the river.

[Cindy Adair]

We were dropped off at a fancy mall and told to meet at noon at the adjacent flying saucers restaurant.

There were palms outside.

And palms near the elevator.

I just window shopped but was amused by this item for sale. Not sure about the “enjoy the freedom” idea.

I wandered a little early to the restaurant picturing something of a UFO theme perhaps?

Upon entering I saw the real meaning of the name! Broken dishes made into a tree.

It was quite fancy inside.

We had our own private dining room and more excellent food beginning with interesting fruit to sample. 

 

That evening there was a Salsa show with this Hyophorbe and golden cat at the entrance. Sadly three of us just could not stay awake long enough to wait for the show which did not start until after 11 pm. Our loss I am sure.


 

[Cindy Adair]

The IPS also stopped to see the cat sculptures by the river (Gatas del Rio) but worth another look.

Just a sampling below.

With me for scale you can see these are big.

 

Each cat had a sign giving more details such as the cat with seven lives above.

[Cindy Adair]

Our last tour stop was the next day to Palmitropicales owned by one of the speakers at the conference.

We learned about shipping Heliconias and other flora as a business.

We toured the growing area.

Then we were treated to our final buffet lunch of the tour outside the adjacent family residence.

Floral arrangements added to the experience.

Everything was delicious!

[Cindy Adair]

The next morning we began departing to catch our flights scattered across the globe.
 

There is talk of Hawaii or Australia for the Heliconia Society Biennial and I look forward to seeing everyone again there if not before! 

I suggest you join to support their good causes such as giving money from their silent auction at the conference to botany students. Plus I receive an excellent newsletter and you might want to hear when they offer travel again.

https://www.heliconia.org/joinhsi

Learn more here:

https://www.heliconia.org
 

My sincere thanks to Carla Black and so many others who made this trip possible!
 

What a great experience,  the best of which (like IPS travel) was meeting so many nice and interesting people.

[Hillizard]

4 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

The next morning we began departing to catch our flights scattered across the globe.
 

There is talk of Hawaii or Australia for the Heliconia Society Biennial and I look forward to seeing everyone again there if not before! 

I suggest you join to support their good causes such as giving money from their silent auction at the conference to botany students. Plus I receive an excellent newsletter and you might want to hear when they offer travel again.

https://www.heliconia.org/joinhsi

Learn more here:

https://www.heliconia.org
 

My sincere thanks to Carla Black and so many others who made this trip possible!
 

What a great experience,  the best of which (like IPS travel) was meeting so many nice and interesting people.

Wonderful visual travelogue Cindy! Thanks for posting all these and taking us all along on your trip.

[Cindy Adair]

Thank you Hillizard!

[Marie Nock]

Cindy,  thanks so much for sharing your tour.  I really enjoyed the pictures and commentary.  Makes me want to go to Colombia.

[mike in kurtistown]

Great photography and trip description, Cindy.  And how remarkable those Colombians are at artistic decoration.

 

[Cindy Adair]

Hi Marie and Mike!

Thanks for your comments.

I would recommend Colombia as a travel destination to anyone, but especially those of us who love tropical plants. 

[Barry]

Cindy,

Thank you for the wonderful pictures and dialog of your trip! What a diverse collection of plants, seems like something for anyone that loves plants. Definitely putting Colombia on the wish list to visit. I am heading to Cuba for 10 days next month, looking forward to posting about my trip. I will try to do a good job, but you set the bar pretty high for travel dialogue.

[SHEP]

Cindy, that was so thoughtful for taking all the time to post the photos and narrate.  I never had any idea of the variety of Aroids, nor imagined the possibility of putting them into my landscape.  Are most of these tropical, and need humidity, or are these at a higher elevation? 

Whew, I would have been freaked out by having military guards suddenly appear to accompany you while visiting on tour in a foreign country and not speaking the language.  Is that common while traveling to South America. The last time that happened to us, was when we were in Ayutthaya,Thailand and returning by boat to Bangkok, armed guards got on top of the boat with their assault weapons pointing outward. That was when we were told that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait for the Gulf War, and a lot of explosives were moved into Bangkok.  All of the American airlines stopped flying into the city.   Cecile  

 

[Cindy Adair]

Hi Cecile!

Thanks for your kind words.

Andy Hurwitz, one of the two IPS Vice presidents, made sure I posted about this trip even though it was not a Palm society event. For me definitely lifetime memories. 
 

I never felt afraid. Had the leaders seemed concerned, maybe I would have been, but I think the folks with guns were more likely there to protect us.

As to the language, I am far from fluent in Spanish, but compared to a few others on the trip I could manage.

Your experience with Thailand sounded more scary!

Aroids are really interesting plants that I almost ignored when living in Virginia. Definitely some will grow outside even there with snow, just might go dormant in the cold. I did grow some interesting Amorphophallus spp and some colocasias that I am sure can take most of CA.

However the aroids that really caught my eye are subtropical to tropical.
 

Some are too invasive for my tastes in Puerto Rico, but the more I see and learn the more I love them. 

Growers like Ree Gardens in Miami and the International Aroid Society show and sale in Miami (usually in September) have increased my interest.

Private message me if you want suggestions of where to buy them from common to rare, not that I am an expert!

Definitely you should give them a try and lots of topics on PT centered on them under “the tropical plants other than palms” Subforum.

Time to go back outside!