Caracas Victoria Society EXPEDICION BOTANICA Parque de la Exótica Flora Tropical San Felipe, Yaracuy, Venezuela Page 2 Text by Dorothy Whittembury & Juli Carbonell Photos by Juli Carbonell - Click to enlarge

Pacho Norden & Gertrud von Fedak under the shade of a young Rosa de Montaña

Juli continues:

Since Sonia is the new Victoria Guru in Venezuela, she was charged with teaching Maria Fernanda, the botanist and Director of the Botanical Garden, about the germination of Victoria´s seeds, which by itself is a daunting task. While we visited the park in a horse drawn wagon, driven by Alberto, a former Hungarian Olympic Equestrian Champion, Sonia was able to get the seeds planted with the utmost care.
During our ride through the park we saw the big pond, future home of the Victoria, which will be cleared of all water plants as soon as Victoria is big enough to move to her new home. We had great fun during the ride since Alberto is a very nice man full of stories about the plants we saw, and a great teller of tall tales, which made us laugh.

^ The Big House, home of Stephan and Gertrud von Fedak, owners and creators of this wonderland >

A romantic corner of the garden, from left to right: Isadora Norden, Luis Carbonell and Dorothy Whittembury

	Later Gertrud invited us for lunch at El Balcon del Yaracuy, her small coffee plantation 1400 meters above San Felipe, a nice cool place about an hour away from the oppressive heat of the valley below. The von Fedaks have built a European style mountain house which they rent to selected visitors.
Complete page about El Balcon del Yaracuy including views and coffee processing Gertrud, an accomplished horsewoman who raises and trains the descendents of the famous Hungarian horses, the Shagya Arabs, gave us Saturday evening an exhibition of dressage with her beautiful horse Galan, a magnificent animal. >
Finally after another memorable dinner, (this time lobster was on the menu) we retired to La Casita de los Hungaros. Sunday morning (after another huge breakfast and more added pounds) we left for Caracas, very happy at the success of our EXPEDICION BOTANICA and the new home we found for our Victorias.