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Other growers in costa rica?

hello everyone!

as you can surmise from my chosen name, i'm a grower from costa rica. i'm starting to believe that i'm the only one in the whole country as an ad published in a national newspaper got me 14 responses and only from people stating a newly acquired interest (ever since they read the ad) in pc's and for how much i was selling them... so for starters i'd like to know if any of you are, or know of, enthusiasts from costa rica.

again, hello and thanks

carlos
 
Welcome to the forum, Carlos! I'm not from Costa Rica, but it's my favorite vacation spot! I've been three times now, and can't wait to get back. Here's a pic from one of my trips. I was standing at the hotel room window, 5 minutes after I arrived, and suddenly BOOOM!!!!

Volcano_1_640x480.sized.jpg


Capslock
 
hey capslock!

thanks for the welcoming! that's a great shot of volcán arenal. did you get to see any eruptions at night? the bright orange lava oozing out against a pitch black background is quite a sight. yet it's not easy to view it because it's cloudy most of the time. while in c.r. didn't you get to meet someone who grew pc's? ha ha ha! long shot but worth asking.

carlos
 
Carlos,
Yes, we saw some fantastic night eruptions, with lava rolling down the sides of the mountain. I'll never forget that sight, although my night pictures didn't come out at all. During my last trip, we didn't seen anything because of the clouds, though.
smile_h_32.gif


I never saw any sign of cps in Costa Rica, nor of anyone growing them. But I kept thinking that a lot of them would grow really well there. I think you could grow a lot of nepenthes outdoors with no problem! You should be the pioneer in Costa Rica CP growing! Where in CR do you live? I've pretty much only been to Arenal (and La Fortuna), and out at the Pacific coast in Tamarindo.

Capslock
 
see? i told you about the clouds. anyway, you got lucky to get a good unclouded view half the times you went to la fortuna. about me being a pioneer, yeah well, the thing with being the first guy is that it gets really lonely waiting for the rest to catch up. another problem i face is that it's very difficult to bring grown, established plants into cr. so everything i've got has been raised from seed. in case you're wondering, seeds need to sort the red tape as well, but they're easier to "smuggle" them in than plants. why smuggle? because the requirements and investment to bring a few plants are the same than for a thousand; fitosanitary and import permits, take a guy from the health department to the airport for him to give the lot an ok. just too much time, effort and money for a couple of plants. were it for business, that's another story, but it´s not. so anyway, that´s why i'm looking for people here in cr to exchange grown plants. i live in san pedro, san josé. i grow my seedlings (i wouldn't call the plants yet, it would be too pretentious, except for a d. capensis wide leaf and a d. intermedia var. cuba which are all grown-up, but haven't flowered yet) on a table with an east-facing window on a top floor of the building where they get plenty of the morning sun. about you not seeing any pc's in the wild here, it's no surprise, i haven't either. they live in places where only crazy biologists dare to go. ha ha ha!

cm
 
I'm glad to have seen this thread - I was actually going to post to see if there were CPs available anywhere in Costa Rica!! I'm there at least a few times a year and am working on relocating there. Where are you located? I usually am in Alajuela working with a scarlet macaw reintroduction program.
 
hi nimbus! just read your post as i was out of san josé on a work trip in guanacaste. funny, i work for the tourism bureau specifically for a project in the north pacific called polo turístico golfo papagayo and as you already probably know papagayo is one of the names in spanish for ara macao... about cp's in costa rica, you can find 14 different species in the wild. catopsis berteroniana, passiflora foetida, utricularia endresii, u. foliosa, u. gibba, u. hydrocarpa, u. jamesoniana, u. praetermissa, u. purpurea, u. pusilla, u. subulata, u. unifolia, pinguicula crenatiloba and drosera capillaris. as for collectors or raisers, the only one i know of is yours truly. maybe when you move to cr, we can open a carnivorous plant society with just 2 members, that's a very exclusive club. ha ha!

regards

carlos
 
costaricacultivator,
All two of you could meet at the Key Largo or Blue Marlin  bar.
biggrin.gif

I have spent about two years of my life in CR...three weeks at a time.
I spent a lot of time, a lotta' years back, panning for gold on the Osa Penninsula.  Not much gold but is was fun...and things could get a bit dicey since everyone carried a gun back then.  That was a wild place back in the early seventies.  The Colone was 8.25 to 1 at the time.  What is it now...475?
The cloud forest of Montverde used to be one of my favorite places and the drive around Lake Arenal is still one of the most spetacular I have ever taken.
 
key largo? isn't that an island in florida? blue marlin? ah! i get it, you´re pulling my leg 'cause i know that's a fish
smile_m_32.gif
besides i don't think nimbus would appreciate those two places as much as i believe you did... fyi, nowadays it's almost 490 colones per dollar.
as for arenal, did you check out capslock's awesome picture of the volcano?

cheers!

carlos
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (costaricacultivator @ Aug. 16 2005,2:32)]hi nimbus! just read your post as i was out of san josé on a work trip in guanacaste. funny, i work for the tourism bureau specifically for a project in the north pacific called polo turístico golfo papagayo and as you already probably know papagayo is one of the names in spanish for ara macao...  about cp's in costa rica, you can find 14 different species in the wild. catopsis berteroniana, passiflora foetida, utricularia endresii, u. foliosa, u. gibba, u. hydrocarpa, u. jamesoniana, u. praetermissa, u. purpurea, u. pusilla, u. subulata, u. unifolia, pinguicula crenatiloba and drosera capillaris. as for collectors or raisers, the only one i know of is yours truly. maybe when you move to cr, we can open a carnivorous plant society with just 2 members, that's a very exclusive club. ha ha!

regards

carlos
lol - sounds good! Looks like I'll be down for 3 months early next year, so I might need to get some CPs to keep me company while I'm there - I'll look you up!
 
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