balsa from Ecuador

I have a buddy who’s going on a surfari to Ecuador. While sitting in the lineup I jokingly asked him to buy me some balsa while he’s there. A day later he paddled out, said he’d been thinking about it, and was willing to buy balsa for me and ship it back to California (if I was willing to pay for it). Now I’m thinking, what started out as a joke might turn into an interesting project. He says everything is cheap there (relatively speaking) and suspects the shipping costs might be the problem. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong on that one. (Seems to me that good balsa would cost more than freight…). So, I know there are some of you out there with expertise in this area. What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Any pitfalls? I know to tell him to pick out straight, light, knot-free balsa if possible and about how much I’d want, but I don’t know what’s a good price. I plan on doing some research but if anyone has ballpark numbers or has done something like this before, I’d be interested in hearing about it. Thanks in advance for any advice!!!