Heliconias took me back to Colombia this year. With the Heliconia Society International conference being held in El Valle de Anton in Panama in August the opportunity to spend another couple of weeks in Colombia on the road was too great to miss. Once again I had the pleasure of travelling with Emilio Constantino, a native Colombian from Cali who specialises in taking people into the bush in Colombia to see plants, birds, cultural activities, etc and ensuring they return to tell the story. Emilio's facebook page (http:// www.facebook.com/emilio.constantino) is essential viewing for anyone who has an interest in what grows or happens in Colombia, with thousands of amazing images ready for viewing. I've even joined facebook, to my horror, to help Emilio get some names to some of his images. I'd suggest you give yourself a couple of hours to scroll through them. Travelling with me this year were two old friends of mine, Dave Quigley who went to high school with me and has always wanted to come along on one of my plant trips, as well as Steve Villiers who came to Panama and the Caribbean with me in 2007.
With lots of planning and studying, I spent many a weekend locked onto my computer looking at herbarium specimens, plant descriptions, maps, Google Earth, with the app From Missouri Botanical Gardens attached, showing collections, etc., in preparation, also at the same time driving my partner mad with my obsession. It payed off in spades as we spent less time driving around not seeing what we were looking for and more time seeing what we were after.
Arriving in Bogota, Emilio picked us up at the airport and we were off, in his new 4WD, ready for action. As we travelled in the higher elevations around Bogota, we saw Vriesea tequendamae growing in trees along the side of the road, with their red, pendent inflorescences hanging down. I was keen to lose elevation and find my first Heliconia so away we went towards the Rio Magdalena and down the western slope of the Cordillera Oriental, towards Sasaima.
Stopping for a late lunch allowed me to eat quickly and disappear along the road to see what was growing around our restaurant, while my travelling companions finished lunch at a leisurely rate and then discussed how truly crazy I was. Large flowering Tillandsia fendleri with pink bracts were growing in the trees close by and were stunning! After seeing the red-and-yellow bracted plants in Peru, seeing bright pink ones on day 1 was very exciting. The inflorescences were easily 1 m tall and flowering in all their glory. Also growing in the trees were Tillandsia myriantha forming large stoloniferous colonies.
We headed further down the range, losing elevation and arrived at Guaduas just on sunset. Thinking wisely, we elected to stay in a hotel out of town and were assured a good night's sleep, without the nocturnal noise of some Colombian towns (more on this to follow). The next day...