Thanks for the feedback & link Jerry & Stitz! I know it will be more expensive than the plants, but she is really driving me nuts about getting a couple of my vandas & species phals!! I will contact APHIS and see how much it will cost to get her off my back. Gary, I have been to Colombia twice, I had a great time, the people are very friendly, extremely helpful, & always in the mood to have a good time! Aside from everyone staring at the 6'1", blonde hair, green eye, powdered white guy, I felt very comfortable. Just take a few common sense safety measures & you will have a fabulous trip! The one place you must visit is Medellin, it is the city of eternal spring! It is also the home of Fernando Botero (the artist who makes the paintings & sculptures of the fat people, fat animals, fat trees, etc). -Ray-

Hi there, If you are familiar with bromeliad genera, these natural types, with flowers coming from just about any angle from the stem, are invariably Guzmania or Mezobromelia and I suggest Mezobromelia for this. The species could be harder to id though but could be M capituligera. There are Guznmanias that look like these too like daniellii and variegata nad the difference is in the flowers - nectar scales at the base of the Mezobromelia petals (they used to be Vrieseas!) If you are keen to get these habitat plants identified, you can post the images on Brom-L where various taxonomists might hazard a guess (http://brom-l.florapix.nl/) Your other ones were probably Guzmania species, possibly squarrosa and one like plants in cultivation as pennellii. Colombia has a wealth of Guzmania species so without references identification would be difficult. Thank you for posting images of habitat - I will always be keen to see them. Cheers, Pedro

Greetings to all! Yes. They are everywhere. Here in city (Medellin) it's pretty much Tillandsia recurvata and Catopsis. Once you get out in to the country around here there is just about any thing you might want. Phil

Looks rather like Guzmania scherzeriana or a close relative...their infls. can be quite impressive and over 1.20 m in length. J