ALCON FLOWERS RIONEGRO COLOMBIA

                 Alcon Flowers Rionegro Colombia

Saturday am made coffee and warmed up this orange bread I bought near the hostel, making coffee is a feat, my friend didnt even have a coffee maker, in this place. I walked all over trying to find a simple coffee maker, but only found this plastic old time percolator so I bought for 12 dollars and this is what I use to make coffee in my room. Its loud so I just make it upstairs in my room and then bring her down a cup.  Saying this I wanted you to get a picture of what I do each morning. I open the French doors to my room balcony and listen to the birds if there is any, look at my pretty hanging plant I made and enjoy the morning air with a cup of coffee in my bed. My room is simple a old love seat, brick walls,a bed a round table nothing more.

              

So back to the morning, I showered the hot water was not working so took a cold shower fast and got ready to be picked up by two gentlemen that I met the day before thru one of the guests here in the hostel. 

Carlos, a tall handsome blue eyed salt and pepper hair  beautiful smile, and one other man picked up Helen and I to take us on a tour of the Hydrengea company located near by. We came to. What looked like an old apartment, they walked us in to this make shift office, two ladies one with a face mask one young complexion not so good. Both just stared at Helen and I as we greeted them. At first I was timid, not knowing where they were taking us leading us thru this narrow room, very tight quarters, back thru a storage into a garage like setting where there were about 15 people all dresssed in beige with shoe coverings, and masks. Stacks of boxes on a shelve contained hundreds of stems of white hydrangea, the owner or manager named Cesar, began to explain what they were doing. I walked over to two young men standing,plucking on petals on the bottom of each stem, and asked what? He told me that it was immature flowers that cause the big main flower to wilt more rapidly.  Another had her hands in a bucket of water all day wrapping stems and putting plastic bags on the bottoms with rubber bands. Three others were cleaning and putting sleeves one was packing boxes, then a supervisor was checking everything and taking them to a small walk in they had.
 
We talked and he explained the product the type of packing they use to ship all over the world. They are a small family owned company but the product was perfect, and if you are reading this and are in the industry contact me and I will send you the information on how to obtain there flowers.

All four of us Helen,Carlos Cesar,and myself piled into a nice four by four pickup and took a ride to the country. We laughed and joked and talked about food, they told us about this place on the mountain top that had these fried Cheese sticks with jelly sauces of  pineapple, uchuva and berry, and that you have never tasted anything so good in your life. We drove for about. 20 minutes, traveled up a steep mountain road, where the views were just spectacular. I saw a house modern looking on top of a mountain and pointed it out, then Cesar said that was his vacation house on the farm. The cars and buses that past us as we drover were hilarious, little tiny taxis like you see in Nicaragua or in the Philippines,  big crazy open busses all painted with serious designs.  We entered a pretty rough terrain dirt road and continued on this for about two miles. Very pretty country and pretty primative settings for houses and living. Typical campo style houses with tin or terracotta rooves.

Finally we came to the entrance of the farm  a really rough steep road to the top of the mountain. We got down  then walked the rugged stairs made of mud in the farm, saw the process of planting training and growing the big tall beautiful hydrangea. Cesar explained the whole farm, I shared with him something I saw to help maintain the weeds in another farm and he was very interested, we discussed the idea of possibly me using his product and doing a tour to his farm ending in the beautiful simple modern structure at the top for a reception and for the tourists to see this spectacular view! We had a great time they were super nice people and I learned more about the production of commercial flowers. I don’t know where this is taking me but I am very interested and love the idea of sharing my knowledge with the world or others who are in this industry.  Standing at the top on his balcony looking over that valley was impressive. Seeing the world from a completely different perspective was eye opening, and to think this was free to me, my shoe string was tied and I adventured to a place I never imagined last week.Today Standing on top of the Andes Mountains overlooking all the flower, cofeee, and sugar cane farms in the area.  

The Hydrengea they grow in various colors and sizes grow about 5 feet tall under the covers they have over the whole farm to see an endless sea of flowers is a rare site, the normal designer never knows where our product comes from, so this was a real cool experience. Alcon Flowers grow Hydrengea, Solidago, and rucus  really beautiful. 

      We took off down the mountain and stopped at the nursery with the cheese stick stand in the side of the road, we had Ricisimo cheese sticks a local beer called AGULA the eagle, and sauces of Pineapple, uhcuva this is a tiny yellow fruit with lots of soft seeds in it the flavor is tart and sweet like a sour gummy bear, they make drinks and sauces out of this! And finally berry sauce. As we sat a truck full of cows pulled up, and many colorful painted buses that are all open transporting people all over the mountain side.  I hope to get a photo of these buses wow they are crazy!  Better than the buses in Panama. For more information and details on how to travel light and see the most interesting things in Colombia contact me! I would love to share.