Gardener uses Colombia lockdown to save botanical paradise

Botanist Gomez cleans a lake at his botanical garden in Quindio, Colombia. Photos: AFP

When the coronavirus pandemic swept through Colombia in March, forcing a national lockdown, Alberto Gomez decided he would sit it out amid the lush green foliage of his botanical garden and tend to his plants.

Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, a fact that prompted Gomez, 72, to establish an ecological park more than 40 years ago on the Andean slopes of the northeastern Quindio department.