Every year there is a plant sale at the amazing Heliconia Gardens in Volcan. I had never been to it, but yesterday a bunch of friends wanted to go and invited me to go along. I am so glad I did! It’s gorgeous with water lilies, gingers, and many other plants, and the heliconias were absolutely amazing. Even if you don’t want to buy plants it is well worth going just to see the place.
There were quite a few people at the sale. Parking was along the road and then you walk in, or if the truck came along you could hop in for a ride. Even the road in is very beautiful.
The sale was very well organized. There were papers listing all the plants. You told one of the workers what you wanted, they marked the paper, put all your plants in a group while you took your paper to the girls who collected the money. When you returned with your receipt, your plants were put in a wheelbarrow or on a truck for delivery down to the street parking area.
The photos above do not do the place or the plants justice. I don’t think any photo could, but I was especially frustrated with mine. My camera has lost it’s display, I didn’t want to take my big expensive good camera, so I decided to use my iPhone camera. It had a hard time with the exposure on many of the photos, the colors were off in other photos, or the focus, and a lot of the photos were thrown away as unusable. Tomorrow I go down to Panafoto to see if they can advise me on getting my Canon repaired or if not, replaced. I apologize for the quality of the photos, and hopefully I can correct the situation in the very near future.
After the Heliconia Garden, we all decided to go to the great Mexican restaurant in Volcan. Everyone must have had the same idea because all the cars parked in front had plants. Word is the dollar store in Volcan is one of the best, so after lunch we stopped in there. I found a couple small things I needed, and then considered buying some incense. I have smelled incense in other homes but never looked at it closely until this day. Incense here has a purpose beyond just smelling good! Who knew?
An update before I send this out -I went to town today to look at cameras. It is possible there is a shop downtown that can repair my ailing camera but it might be more expensive than just buying a new one, so I bought a small, not very expensive Canon Power Shot. When the battery is charged I’ll give it a try. I’ve had good luck with that brand except for the failed display, and I’m not even sure I can blame the camera entirely for that because I did get it wet with salt water in the not too distant past. You don’t realize how much you use something until it’s not available, so I’m happy to have a little basic camera just for daily use.
The Panama Adventure 
Sounds (and looks) like a wonderful outing Kris. And your iPhone photos aren’t all that bad! Actually they look rather nice. (Sorry to hear about your Canon though). Have you tried editing the iPhone photos? It can improve them. (Forgive me if I’m suggesting something you’ve already tried).
Beautiful flowers and plants.
Good to hear about the incense too – do I see what I think I see on one of the labels?
Best, Wendy
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Thanks, glad you liked the photos. I picked the best ones and did some editing which helped. I had none that showed the skies and mountains properly though, unfortunately, because the views were stunning.
Yes, you see what you think you see, but it doesn’t smell quite like it if memory serves. I tried the vanilla one last night and it seems to discourage the few mosquitoes that visit sometimes, which was my objective so I’m happy. Tonight maybe I’ll explore the thinking of deep thoughts! LOL
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The gardens and plants are really beautiful. Glad you decided to go.
On incense, we used to surround ourselves at my maternal grandparents’ house in India with incense both inside the house and outside when sitting out in the late evening – it did keep the mosquitos at bay. I light a couple sticks at home here in the evenings as a ritual- it calms me down a bit, after a rough day at work. The perfume of choice was (and is, at my house) more often than not, sandalwood. Also champak (plumeria), and jasmine.
Yes I have my doubts about the box in your picture – doubt it would replicate the smell successfully (then again, the smell alone isn’t that pleasant).
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So, it does help with bugs 🙂 Nice to know. The incense in the box smells quite perfumy, nothing like the plant and I also don’t seem to be thinking deep thoughts (though I am getting some emails answered)
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Kris,
I have a pretty basic Canon Power Shot and I love it. I’m always grabbing it to take pictures. It takes good pics too despite the fact it’s not a real expensive one. I’d be lost without it.
Very nice pics of all the flowers and the ponds with water lilies. One of my sisters works in a nursery and they have the prettiest plants and water lily ponds there and of course flowing fountains all over the place. I think that would be such a nice place to work around plants. She’s been there eight years now and we all go to her for our plant questions. She’s a storehouse of plant knowledge.
Sunni
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So far I like this little Canon.
I would have a great time visiting your sister’s work! I especially love water lilies
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I love Heliconias, we have two types at home. We had visited Volcane on our previous trip, didn’t know about this place. The good thing was we were there for a cowboy parade that was going on. Nice city,a lot of country life. Great photos.
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I really like Volcan and if I was going to live in the mountains, I think I would choose that area. As for the Heliconias, it is someone’s private home and she only opens it one weekend a year for the sale. So unless you are lucky enough to be there on that weekend, you couldn’t have gone there anyway.
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