Ecuador Tour 2013
January 11th – 20th, 2013
 

January 18th

We left at 9:30 this morning for a short drive to an orchid breeder and grower…wow, what a selection of orchids. Everyone set off to photograph them madly. We then toured the greenhouses and after this had a lovely snack and drink then it was off to Magic Flowers. We started out our visit by getting into the wagon and being taken through the growing fields. Here again we saw banana plants with cacao growing underneath. Cacao is harvested December, May and then again in October. We all tasted cacao, some for the first time. I like it but you just suck off the white stuff and don’t chew the bean. We drove down this most beautiful and scenic road dripping with Delonix regia trees…their flowers covering parts of the road along the way. We have these trees in Panama as well and if you have ever seen them, you know how spectacular they are with their Cattleya orchid type of flower and very large and long seed pods. When we got to the cacao area where they dry the seeds after being taken out of the pods, we found a nice sign waiting for us to greet us. Then we each had a coconut, just opened to refresh and set off for the walk through some of the growing areas of the tropical plants. All along the way Esteban would cut off helliconia, decorative bananas or ginger to show us close up what they looked like. Their son was with us as well, his name also Esteban. Then we were at the warehouse. Once here, Maria took over - she is Estebans wife - and together they own Magic Flowers. We got to see how the flowers were prepared for shipping, how they were packed and got to see close up some varieties that we could not see out in the fields.
 
After this most informative tour, it was time to leave our boots and pick up our lunch…eaten on site along with tastings of the fresh fruit that they grow here…plus a fantastic aloe drink which I wish they had in Panama. Not sweet and just yummy. Magic Flowers is supplying the aloe for the drinks.

Then it was back to the hotel to rest and then off on our evening river cruise and then dinner.