(Day 112 on the road) The area south of Medellin is coffee country. My flight from Cartagena put me right in the thick of it, in the city of Pereira. And thus I spent the next few weeks exploring the region, starting with some beautiful hot springs near the village of Santa Rosa de Cabal, before moving on to the hot springs near Manizales. Now, Manizales is one of those Colombias cities which most people have probably never heard of. But they are one of Colombias cities I have seen that have incorporated cable cars into their public transport system. It is ingenious really: As Manizales lies in pretty hilly terrain, the bus terminal is located not near the city center, but at the bottom of a hill, right next to a cable car station. From there, the teleferico whisks you right into the city center in no time. Cable cars really are a game changer in some of the cities here.
The other, slightly different mode of transportation here in the coffee region are old US jeeps called Willy. They are the (often colourful) working horses of many places and are everywhere, plying the hilly routes, offering transport
to virtually any place in the mountains. They are anything given that they a) are about 70 years old and b) normally transport as many people as physically possible (plus a few more who have to stand on the back and hold onto something), but they are just a very cool and iconic way to move around with for shorter distances.
With this being one of the worlds most famous coffee producing regions, I certainly wanted to know a bit more about how they grow the coffee here. To that end, I visited a place called Hacienda Venecia, close to the city of Manizales. I intended to take the coffee tour and maybe spend a night before moving on. I ended staying a week: While a room at the main house of the hacienda was way above my budget at ~150 Euros a night, they also had an 8 Euro a night hostal a few minutes walk away, set in a beautifully lush hammocks and splendid view of the surrounding coffee plantation. And as so often in Colombia, I was the only guest in this little slice of paradise. I spent my days
walking through the extensive coffee plantations, trailrunning in the evening, and generally taking it easy for a few days.
One thing I learned is – probably not strange from a capitalist point of view - that for a long time, the best quality coffee was exported, ironically leaving the big producer Colombia with only coffee (and Tinto) in their own country. However, since a few years ago, more and more coffees hops have sprung up in the region, offering excellent quality brew, often single origin from a local coffee farm down the road. It is fair to say that I sampled a good number of these cafes here in the region.
Next up for me were the two highland coffee towns of Salento and Filandia. While relaxed Salento is firmly on the Gringo trail and attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world, I enjoyed its smaller of Filandia, just an hour down the road, a bit more. It had a more relaxed feel to it, with Colombian and foreign tourists mingling in its pretty streets and chic cafes, serving coffee from local producers. While in the region, I also visited the
After that, I was ready for some big city infusion. While many people had warned me about how dangerous Cali (still) is, I figured no trip to Colombia would without visiting this famous city. I took the usual precautions I did in all bigger cities here – only taking taxis, leaving everything at the hotel that I didnt really need for the day, not walking around much after nightfall, not taking my phone out on the streets, and generally being of my surroundings. I decided to spent some of my hotel points I collected in a different life and spend one night at the 5* Marriott Cali. Pretty nice, indeed, especially the gym and spa. Unfortunately, silly me managed to burn my left hand pretty badly in the sauna, ending my very enjoyable visit prematurely.
