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Today was an active day – with a 12km hike ahead of us. In the early morning we met our guide and made our way to Salento’s main plaza to fetch a jeep to the trail head for our Cocora … Continue reading
After the tour through the coffee plantation and another hearty lunch we got onto a van, which then got us to the town of Salento – slightly less than 100km / 2 hours away.
We made it into Salento in the late afternoon / early evening, well in time for an orientation walk around this little town with its fairly intact colonial buildings.
With Salento also part of coffee country the walk just had to finish in a little cafe for some more of that black liquid. As avid tea drinker, so far I had pretty-much stayed away from coffee on this trip – however with the gesha specialty coffee available here (which was sold to me as close enough to tea), I simply gave it a try – and ended up actually finishing a cup of coffee and enjoying that.
Gesha is a special variety of the normal Arabica coffee; its origins seem to be a bit of a mystery (at least based on my quick internet research) … anyway – the final drink in the end really is closer to a good cup of Earl or Lady Grey than to normal coffee. I guess, the Grey family teas are really a good comparison here, though there is certainly more complexity in a gesha, every sip opens some new flavors, there are also subtle changes as the drinks cools down (I liked it most in lukewarm state). I certainly would go for this coffee again – however given its specialty status (and resulting price) chances will be slim … this sort of coffee simply is too exotic for most cafes …
We spent the night in the hacienda’s guesthouse straight in the middle of the coffee fields. This morning we were given a proper introduction to coffee … starting with some background on the plant, looking at its origin, classification etc. – and then the full process from the seeds up to that black liquid in a cup – covering harvest, the options for fermentation (wet process as used in Colombia, the dry process – plus an honorary mention of the special processing “used” for kopi luwak), hulling, drying up to roasting.
After a first introduction we ventured out into the fields, to see the actual plants and learn about the work on the farm, i.e. how they keep the plants producing, how long the plants last etc.
The final stop – after a good 2.5 hours into the coffee tour – was at the main house of the hacienda, where we looked into roasting – and got a feeling of the influence of the roasting process towards the characteristics of the coffee.
Overall I have to say … I have been to a number of coffee plantations – but never ever got such a good introduction to the whole process … this really did cover everything – and was nicely presented – I thoroughly enjoyed this activity … though, I now really need a cup of tea 😉
We were on the road again to make our way from Medellin into the Coffee Country around Manizales – a trip of around 200km (our trip was a bit longer, as we had to take a detour due to construction works) and 5 hours.
We arrived at the guesthouse of the Hacienda Venecia coffee plantation in the afternoon, with enough time to spare for a first walk – guided by negro and macchiato, the fittingly names hacienda dogs – around the coffee fields into a side valley. We got back just around sunset in time for a simple, nice and filling dinner.
Coming back from the Peñón de Guatapé, our driver did stop at a viewpoint over Medellin, so we could get to see the sun setting over the city.
Certainly not as spectacular as the one in Santa Marta at the beach – but still great to see … especially the color-changes on the city down below us.
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Most of the group decided to go on a Pablo Escobar tour today; I however was not really interested and also had seen enough of Medellin; a few others thought the same way, so we decided to leave the city … Continue reading
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Today we were in the hands of Avianca again; a quick, on-time flight (yes – they can do that) got us from Cartagena to Medellin in the morning. We were picked up at the airport and made our way to … Continue reading
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We left Santa Marta around midday on the 18th – after another easy morning and a quest for lunch. We got picked up by minibus and were off for the 230km / 4.5 hours journey to Cartagena – with our … Continue reading
Tayrona National Park was one of the reasons for me to actually visit Colombia – and today was the day to go there … and I did not go disappointed. 🙂
We made it to the park entrance after a 45-minute bus ride. At the entrance we had to endure a ranger introduction around how to behave in the park, before being allowed to start queuing to actually get tickets. While the ranger introduction may sound like a great idea, it really turns out a waste of time, when it is only provided in Spanish with half the tourist not in command of enough Spanish, to actually understand the details (which were really not much beyond the normal stuff, e.g. take your garbage, do leave nothing behind, do not swim, where forbidden).
After a good hour of waiting in queue for the tickets we were finally allowed into the park; a shuttle did bring us to the trail head for the hike to the beach … the hike was first through the lush jungle with some slight ups and downs, then in parallel to the coast and finished at the beach – a great hike with some good views on the way – and a near-perfect beach on arrival.
We had lunch right at the beach in a little local restaurant; after that it was digestion time at the beach in the little shade, that was left for us. Of course there was also an opportunity for a quick, refreshing jump into the Caribbean Sea.
When we started our way back, we could already hear a thunderstorm approaching. The rain finally hit us half way back. Temperatures though were high enough, so it did not really matter – plus it added to the experience (it’s not called rain forest, because it does not rain).
It stopped raining, when we were on the bus heading back to Santa Marta; after some time to fresh up, we made it into town again for another great dinner – there is no better way to finish a superb day.
With our delayed arrival, this evening’s schedule turned out a slightly compressed. We met just after sunset (literally 20 minutes after arrival from the airport) for a quick orientation tour of town, a glimpse of the local festivities in honor of the virgen de Carmen, followed (or should I say topped off) by an excellent dinner (nicely accompanied by 2for1 mojitos) and a hello to Mr. Crabs.
As the virgen de Carmen is now showing up the second time, I should probably provide some more background. The virgin of Carmen is the patron saint of the transport drivers in Colombia. So celebrations were not limited to town centers and churches (like here or in Villa de Leyva earlier in the trip), there were also plenty of trucks, taxis and buses decorated beautifully – we even saw a processing of many trucks and buses in her honor.
