Off to Medellin

Today is a travel day as we fly from the Pereira airport to Medellin, Colombia's second largest city. We were still feeling the effects of our sunburns in the shade, and then we had to hop on this little puddle jumper to hop over the Andes Mountains.

Both of us are pretty comfortable flying, but this is one flight we did not enjoy.  The flight started off smooth, but about 2/3 of the way to Medellin we headed right into a series of thunder clouds in this small plane.  The plane was rolling and shaking and dropping and bumping for what felt like 30 minutes.  It was probably only 5 minutes, but it was no fun.  This was one of the worst flights we've ever been on.

Coffe Tour and Botanical Garden

We managed to pull ourselves away from the paradise of Hotel Mirador for a couple day trips.  The first was for a tour of a coffee farm (finca) and the other was to the Botanical Gardens of the Quindio region.

En route to tour a coffee farm, we see actual coffee farmers on the road.

The coffee tour was to a place called Recuca.  It's a semi-functional coffee farm that is mostly an educational tour where they tell you all about growing coffee, different varieties, history of coffee in Colombia, and the drying and roasting process.  There were definitely some campy aspects to it, but the info was great and the setting was really nice.

Gringo grande posing for a campy picture.

Being English speakers, we got our own private guide.  Usually you go with a group, but we were the only ones who spoke English that day.  Sweet!

Young coffee plants ready to go into the ground.

 We learned a ton of interesting info about growing coffee.  Coffee is originally from Ethiopia, each plant produces 1/2 Kilogram of beans per year, plants live for 15 years and don't start producing beans until they're 2 years old.  The coffee region in Colombia is very rural, and the workers hardly make any money.  A skilled picker will harvest 300 KG of beans per day, and make about $1.75.

Walking around the farm, you couldn't help but recognize the disconnect between the rural and poor farming side of coffee and the experience we have drinking it at home. For a moment, it feels upsetting, but gaining this kind of understanding is one of the reasons we travel in the first place.

Stacie among the coffee plants.

After the tour we had a traditional Paisa (term for the people of the region) lunch.  It was actually pretty good!


2 Days Later, the Jardin Botanico del Quindio

The next little day trip we took was to a really great botanical garden about 30 minutes away.  It's the only botanical garden in Colombia that's in a national park, and contains a native forest inside it.

Once again, we paid for an English guide.  The guide was highly knowledgeable and had studied environmental management, and not only knew a lot about the Colombian environment, but also about ecosystems around the world.  His enthusiasm really came through, and we learned a lot!

Our guide Diego was awesome!

These "trees" are actually the tallest ferns on earth.

Colombia is second only to Brazil in biodiversity, number of plant and insect species, and has the most species of palm trees of any country.  Diego was throwing down all kinds of knowledge!

 

Colombia is possibly the greenest place we've ever been.

There were all kinds of strange and amazing plants here, including the spiky palm trees pictured below, the world's tallest ferns, tallest bamboo, and tallest palm trees, which we'd seen in the wild when we visited Cocora.

Included in the botanical garden is a huge butterfly pavilion.  There were tons of butterflies flitting around, landing on you, and munching on the plates of fruit that were set out for them.  The coolest butterflies were small and had perfectly transparent wings that looked like they were outlined in shimmery copper.  Very cool, but they didn't hold still long enough to get them on camera.

Stacie and a friend in the butterfly garden.

Roughing it in Colombia

Roughing it in the Colombian Andes, where the biggest risk is falling out of the pool.

We're now at an amazing hotel just outside the town of La Tebaida, with the nearest big town of Armenia about 25 minutes away.  This is our last stop in the coffee region, and we plan to enjoy more mind blowing scenery and go to a few local tourist sites.

The Hotel is Mirador las Palmas, and is run by two incredibly friendly guys (who speak English!), Joshua and Omar,who traded in the corporate life to run this little hotel on a beautiful farm.  Joshua used to be a real estate attorney in Miami, and Omar is from Colombia (also used to work stateside).  Their hotel is a magical place, it is the most stunning location we've ever seen.  Pictures don't do it justice.

The view from our balcony.

 The farm is on the steep hillside that drops down from the rooms. Guests are encouraged to hike around and explore the botanical gardens and fruit trees on the property.

What we've learned about Colombia so far

Colombia is very much like home.  People are people, and they're just going about their lives.  But it's also very different.  Here's what we've learned about  Colombia:

The people are probably the warmest and most friendly in the entire world.  You look everyone in the eye and say Buenas Tardes, even on the street in the big city.  Everyone is polite and helpful, even though we speak muy muy pocito espanol.  We love the people here!

Street signs and road lines are merely suggestions.  Traffic flow is much more organic here, and passing a big truck on a blind corner isn't a big deal - they do it calmly like it's no big deal.

The sun is very powerful. We both got sunburned sitting under an umbrella with the sun behind us.  We think it was from a reflection off the pool.  The UV index goes from 1-10.  Here it's listed as 11+.  We haven't been below 4000 ft, and we're basically on the equator, so go figure.  Stacie survived her mild sunburn just fine, whew.

You don't come to Colombia for the food.  It's really bad, they don't have much variety, they like salt and butter, and eat lots of over-cooked meat in huge portions without many veggies.  It's the hardest thing about the trip so far.  The good news is the tomatoes are amazing and the fruit juice is to die for.

They don't drink good coffee.  As crazy as it sounds, the coffee here isn't very good, and they serve it with more milk than coffee.  They're very proud of their coffee growing, but haven't developed the love for drinking good coffee that we have in Seattle.  It's very confusing to wake up every morning with a view over beautiful coffee fincas, only to be served instant brew from a microwave.

The view of coffee plantations (fincas) from our hotel.

No one here speaks English, and we don't speak Spanish.  But everyone is so patient, friendly and helpful that it's really not been a problem.  Justin's two half-assed semesters of Spanish in college are modestly helpful, and a few words are coming back.

Colombian mullets (the mullhawk) are awesome.  They call it el siete paisa.  The women rock high-heels and push-ups, even when walking down a dirt road.  Stay tuned for a future post.

This country is stunningly beautiful, but you already knew that from the pictures we've been posting.

edit,  one more we really need to add.  No wears shorts.  Ever.  Or flip flops.  We brought mostly shorts to wear because it's warm here.  But the locals never ever wear shorts, especially the guys.  Justin feels like a spectacle since he's 6" taller than everyone, and ever more so wearing shorts.  Stacie only brought teva-style sandals and flip flops.  Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. Look at those crazy gringos!

Valle de Cocora

Salento continues to deliver - we're loving it here.  One of the main things to do in this area is travel 20 or 30 minutes by Willys Jeep from town up to the Valle de Cocora, which is on the edge of a huge forest reserve.

The little settlement of Cocora is known for the Palma Cera (Wax Palm), the endangered national tree of Colombia.  The Wax Palm is the tallest palm in the world, and grows above elevations of 6000 ft. We definitely wanted to check it out for ourselves.

A pic from the back of the Willys - our first views of the Palmas Ceras (wax palms)

On the way to catch a Jeep to Cocora, the views in town are amazing.

The way you get from Salento to Cocora is by catching an old Willys Jeep in the town square.  The ride costs $3000 pesos per person, about $2.  They pack the Willys full of tourists and guides, with a few people hanging off the back. This definitely wouldn't fly at home.

We counted 10 people in/on this Jeep before it drove off.

Justin, and new friend Juan Guillermo, taking a self-portrait on the way to Cocora Valley

We caught a Jeep with about 10 other people.  Stacie hopped inside and Justin stood on the little step on the back.  The road is curvy but good, and the drivers drove reasonably slow.  The back was definitely the better spot, but we both got into great conversations with friendly Colombians from nearby cities.  Justin met Juan Guillermo, a med student from the nearby city of Armenia (above).  Seriously, Colombians are the warmest and friendliest people on the planet.

So far, Colombia has been so incredibly beautiful. We are constantly in awe of our surroundings and struggle sometimes to take it all in. Truly a special place.

We sat down at one of the open air restaurants near the Cocora trail head and had a nice lunch of fresh trout (again).  After a hearty meal, we hiked around the area along roads and trails with absolutely stunning views.  Other tourists were on horseback tours or hiking in the area.  Cocora Valley is a remarkably beautiful place.

Tour groups on horses crossing the Rio Quindio

Hiking in Cocora Valley. Crazy amazingly beautiful.

Hiking in Cocora

Despite the steep, jagged terrain, you could see cows grazing on impossibly steep hillsides all over the valley.

On the way back, the Jeep filled up fast and we both had to jump on the back if we were going to catch it. The gal on the right (below) works in the park and had ridden home this way so many times, she couldn't have been more relaxed. She was texting from her phone while in route and, at one point, rested her head on  the roof of the Jeep for a mini-nap. Meanwhile, though we both loved the ride, we were semi-white knuckling our grips on the roof rack, and swiftly ducking to avoid tree branches that occasionally swept the sides and top of the Jeep.

A fantastic ending to a perfect day.

Waiting for the Jeep to cross on a one-lane bridge