
Ecuador’s Flowering Plants—Blooming
Beauty Beyond Belief
February 2-9th, 2008
February 2, Day 1: Quito
We arrived at the Airport in Quito at various times yesterday and all
were met and driven to their hotel. The brand new hotel Dann Carlton was an
exceptional masterpiece of architecture designed and decorated in the
English style. The breakfast was excellent and so was the service while
here.
Web:
http://www.danncarltonquito.com/
February 3, Day 2: Specialty Flower Plantation and Bellaflor Rose
Plantation
We met the owner of Bellaflor, Hanspeter Hug, at his home for breakfast
before he took us over to the plantation for a tour. What a beautiful home
and such hospitality. We so enjoyed ourselves visiting with his family,
having a wonderful brunch and seeing how passionate he is about his
business.
http://www.bellaflor-group.com/
This place was huge and so perfectly run. Hanspeter loved taking us through
the various areas of growing, production and shipping. Of course we loved
all we saw.
After lunch, which was a barbeque, we saw the packing and preparation for
shipping of roses, so you are really going to have a chance to see what
production and preparation is really like, as well as participate in a
course about the latest trends in flower bouquets – as they discovered,
Bellaflor was much more than roses! The current offerings include more than
80 new varieties of roses and a huge selection of hard to find tropicals and
specialty items. They ship all over the world. Much of the fertiliaing is
done with compost and I have included a few pictures to show you the quality
of that as well. What a way to start the tour off! This company has some
great incentives for its workers as well as meeting the basic needs of
housing and medical for the workers.
In the evening, we then enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Theatrum, the
restaurant that is located in the same building at the Theatre.
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