a trip to the vivero

we made a trip to a vivero today. a vivero is a garden center. this was our third vivero in a week, as we have been looking to put some plants in the new abode that we are in. this vivero was by far the nicest with the plants looking the healthiest. the prices weren't bad either. it's located directly across from the entrance to hideaway beach on the main road - for those who want to know where to go.

we bought a palm tree! while you can't ever have the experience of selecting your own christmas tree out in the wild here, this is what we got to do with a palm tree today! at this vivero, many of the bigger plants are growing in the ground, as opposed to within pots. so once you select your palm, they grab a shovel and start digging it out.

here's a shot of jose, digging up our palm tree:


once it came out the ground, it looked like this. cute, huh? now it's on the deck and looking good! hopefully it won't be in too much shock now living in a pot...


the price started at 450 pesos. we talked them down to 350 pesos. so less than $12. pretty good deal we think. though of course everything grows like mad here, so it probably costs them like $3 to grow and take care of it. a woman at sea horse ranch owns this vivero. i'd imagine it is mostly a hobby for her, as who knows how she keeps track of what gets sold and at what price. (she was not there and probably isn't there often. that is just my guess though, given her residential address.)

here's an interesting vivero story. at another vivero we were looking at plants in plastic pots. if you wanted to keep the plastic pot, it costs 200 pesos ($6.75). the plant itself costs 250 pesos. that's insane! goes to show how expensive some things are as compared to others here. i'd imagine they probably have to drive to puerto plata or santiago to get the plastic pots....thus, such a high premium on such a piece of nothing. this is when you miss home depot....how many plastic pots could i buy for $6.75 at home depot? 10? 20?

ok, on to a different topic, we are kitesurfing again! we took a refresher lesson last weekend and have another one this afternoon, if the wind picks up. v and i did a joint lesson and had a lot of fun with the body dragging. this is basically using the kite to pull you through the water without having the board on. we did this together with one holding onto the other who has the kite. at one point, the kite got a bit out of control for veronica. off she went flying about 5 feet above the water. i was not able to hold on to her for that ride unfortunately and sat somewhat stunned in the water at how high up she had flown and then how far away she had landed.

our instructor is ika from serbia. he wasn't sure if he'd be here for today's lesson because he was going to bulgaria for 2 months. hope he's still here because we both liked him. we'll report on how it all goes. we're getting up on the board today, if all goes well.