Armenia
The Quindío Botanical Garden celebrates 45 years of foundationits president and Founder Alberto Gómez Mejía said that being recognized as a Science Center by the Ministry of Science is one of the most important achievements and added “it made us a site of scientific importance in the region, we are the only science center in the region. “Quindio”
The Botanical Garden of Quindío is located in the kilometer 3 via Valle del Cauca, Calarcá, Quindío, next to the southern Calarcá coliseum
At Caracol Radio Armenia we speak with the soul and nerve of JBotanical garden of Quindío, Alberto Gómez Mejía And what does these 45 years mean?It is a phenomenal emotion, because I have survived this effort and I hope that it lasts a little longer to be able to see things grown.I am fascinated by seeing little things that I brought, seeds turned into gigantic trees like those mahoganies that are at the back of the garden or the 14 meter long wine palm that I brought back from the La Vieja River and so on and on top of that I always have the memory, the memory of the children from public schools who come to the garden for free in April and October and who tell me wonderful things about what they have seen here.
Alberto What did you find when you arrived at the Garden?
When I entered with Aureliano Sabogal, who We clandestinely entered this land, we went under the fence and there was a coffee field, This whole part here where the offices are and there was that forest that fascinated me, because the owner Ignacio Moreno had not wanted to cut it down and for that reason he had a reputation for being a bad farmer, because a good farmer had to come and cut down the mountain and to plant coffee and cocoa and whatever that was, he was a good farmer, how about that.
We are working the topic of palms in depth, we want to set up a very good laboratory in Entomology topics, that is, the study of insects, especially with butterflies.s, we have declared and I forgot to say it face, to declare Calarcá the world capital of butterflies and we are going to have next year during the June festivities a parade with people dressed as butterflies through the streets of Calarcá, it is going to call the butterfly parade, that is the dream we have that recognizes us as a country with the greatest diversity of butterflies and the Quindío region as one of the highest gatherings of the highest diversity of lepidopterans on the planet.
For Alberto the Garden became his home
I live here I am I am a cohabitant of everything I stay here morning, noon and night I sleep here and everythingI only go to Armenia from time to time to get stuck in the traffic and get bored in Armenia and I come back here to enjoy 176 species of birds.
Alberto Gómez, founder of the Quindío Botanical Garden and the children who visit the place. Photo: Courtesy of Quindío Botanical Garden
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Garden Inventory
The inventory of birds is 176, and butterflies are 180, which is almost 1% of the butterflies on the planet. They are in this forest, that is outrageous and in bats you have heard the figure that there are close to 40 species of bats in this forest, all of them are absolutely astonishing figures of the incredible diversity that we have.
Botanical Garden as a Science Center.
I believe that the most important legacy is the recognition as a Science Center that the Ministry of Science gave us and that turned us into a site of scientific importance. In the region we are the only science center in Quindío.
