Welcome to Colombia!
Our first visit in Colombia was in the Cafetera, the beautiful coffee region. The region is known to be rich in activities and villages to visit, all close to one another: Armenia, Salento, Finlandia, Pereira, Manizales, Cartago etc. A region where one can only get charmed by the beauty of this green-tropical region and the warmth and kindness of their people.
We arrived in Armenia and stayed there a day. There's not much to do around town, we went to a museum and wandered around time, enjoying the colourful market and few Easter processions. The rest of the attractions are more on the outside of the town, for example the coffee park about an hour from town, but due to the Easter holidays we didn't even try to go as it was even fuller than usual. However we got to get accustomed to the Colombia food culture trying some of their traditional dishes: buñelos (a kind of deep fried cheese ball), arepas (bread made of corn wheat), plantain bananas filled with cheese, and the most surprising of all a chontaduro (a palm tree fruit that kind of tasted like pumpkin) and mango topped with salt and lemon!! Sound crazy right? I know!! But apparently this is their way of eating fruits…
Then we headed to Salento. Arriving there at a Finca hostel outside of town was something very special. I think it was the first time of the trip I felt so well within nature and like a proper holiday relaxation place. It was a peaceful place, perfect to relax and enjoy the beauty of the coffee region and valleys.
Salento has much to offer: its colourful and charming village (ok very touristic, but still so cute), visiting the Valle de Cocora and coffee fincas.
Our first visit in Colombia was in the Cafetera, the beautiful coffee region. The region is known to be rich in activities and villages to visit, all close to one another: Armenia, Salento, Finlandia, Pereira, Manizales, Cartago etc. A region where one can only get charmed by the beauty of this green-tropical region and the warmth and kindness of their people.
We arrived in Armenia and stayed there a day. There's not much to do around town, we went to a museum and wandered around time, enjoying the colourful market and few Easter processions. The rest of the attractions are more on the outside of the town, for example the coffee park about an hour from town, but due to the Easter holidays we didn't even try to go as it was even fuller than usual. However we got to get accustomed to the Colombia food culture trying some of their traditional dishes: buñelos (a kind of deep fried cheese ball), arepas (bread made of corn wheat), plantain bananas filled with cheese, and the most surprising of all a chontaduro (a palm tree fruit that kind of tasted like pumpkin) and mango topped with salt and lemon!! Sound crazy right? I know!! But apparently this is their way of eating fruits…
Then we headed to Salento. Arriving there at a Finca hostel outside of town was something very special. I think it was the first time of the trip I felt so well within nature and like a proper holiday relaxation place. It was a peaceful place, perfect to relax and enjoy the beauty of the coffee region and valleys.
Salento has much to offer: its colourful and charming village (ok very touristic, but still so cute), visiting the Valle de Cocora and coffee fincas.
On our last day (and right before saying goodbye to Steph, my long-lasted backpacking partner) we enjoyed a sunny visit in a coffee finca (most of them being a family business) where they explain how they grow coffee beans, and live off coffee merchandising.
The Don Elias finca is a family run business cultivating 8 000 kg of organic seeds (from Arabic or Colombia species) per year producing up 3 to 4 thousand kilos of coffee beans for exportation, all of that over 4 hectares of field.
In order to procure the best environment for coffee beans to grow there’s a whole strategy behind it. The optimal location is between 900 and 2000 m above sea level, and Salento having a 50% rain – 50% sun climate offers a perfect environment to harvest coffee beans. In order to get most out of the soil, they use the botanical properties of a variety of plants:
A coffee tree holds leaves, flowers and immature green beans which on average gives two beans per seed. On average a tree grows up to 4 meters and can grow even higher up to 6 meters but it’s much more difficult for them to reach that height. With a life expectancy of about 25 years, the tree usually starts production 6 months after plantation: the coffee flower blooms and lives for 5 days and what remains afterwards is the bean. 8 years in production lowers but the quality gets better (with the trunk splitting into two giving a different quality of beans) hence the coffee gets more expensive. And after 17 years the quality starts to lower.
Once the coffee bean turns red and yellow it means that has matured enough to be harvested and processed. The harvesting period, usually happening in April and May and November and December, is a hard manual work requiring 8 people of the Don Elias family to work 12 hours a day. Then an 8 step process happens before one can enjoy a cup of coffee:
The Don Elias finca is a family run business cultivating 8 000 kg of organic seeds (from Arabic or Colombia species) per year producing up 3 to 4 thousand kilos of coffee beans for exportation, all of that over 4 hectares of field.
In order to procure the best environment for coffee beans to grow there’s a whole strategy behind it. The optimal location is between 900 and 2000 m above sea level, and Salento having a 50% rain – 50% sun climate offers a perfect environment to harvest coffee beans. In order to get most out of the soil, they use the botanical properties of a variety of plants:
- The avocado tree give shade and nutrition to the coffee plantation enhancing the coffee fruits’ fertilization – depending on the altitude of the plantation shade is an important factor to produce quality beans as it prevents the plants from burning.
- The chili tree is a natural pesticide eradicating insects
- Aloe Vera truck give many nutrients to the plants
- Banana trees also protects the plantations with shade while its trunk is a natural fertilizer
- Fruit trees such as mandarin, orange and lemon absorb the excess of acidity in the soil while pineapple tree prevents from insects attacks
- Lastly, composting enables to increase the production of 10%
A coffee tree holds leaves, flowers and immature green beans which on average gives two beans per seed. On average a tree grows up to 4 meters and can grow even higher up to 6 meters but it’s much more difficult for them to reach that height. With a life expectancy of about 25 years, the tree usually starts production 6 months after plantation: the coffee flower blooms and lives for 5 days and what remains afterwards is the bean. 8 years in production lowers but the quality gets better (with the trunk splitting into two giving a different quality of beans) hence the coffee gets more expensive. And after 17 years the quality starts to lower.
Once the coffee bean turns red and yellow it means that has matured enough to be harvested and processed. The harvesting period, usually happening in April and May and November and December, is a hard manual work requiring 8 people of the Don Elias family to work 12 hours a day. Then an 8 step process happens before one can enjoy a cup of coffee:
- With a specific machine, separate the bean from its shell, which shell is then used for composting
- Beans spend 1 night in a tank in order to ferment
- They are then washed with water, those who float are designated as bad
- The beans are then spread onto the floor or a glasshouse to dry, this process lasting between 8 and 25 day
- Once dried, the beans go through the machine again to remove another layer of shell
- Blowing away the shell on the good beans remain
- Roast the beans for about an hour stirring to prevent burn. That’s the step when the beans turn brown
- Grind the coffee
- Enjoy your coffee
Transportation: a bus ride from Cali to Armenia: 6 hours, negociated at 30 000 CLP (10€ per person). Then a hour bus ride from Armenia to Salento. In salento most tranfers are provided by old colourful jeeps - pretty cool but quickly expensive as well...
Accommodation:
In Armenia - OneCoine Hostel, cheap (one of the cheapest in town) and convenient. Lovely staff and not too far away from the plaza principal - 24 000 per peson (7 €)
In Salento - El Mocambo hostel (bus stop Lago de Venecia) a lovely old finca nested within nature, a peaceful place with a great staff, hommocks, a pool, a tipi and so much more. 20 000 CLP tent sleeping (6€) or per tent?
F&B: we tried many restaurants and places to eat. Can't really recommend one in particular, they all had their ups and owns. The best is to wander around town and try local places. In Salento a restaurant connected to the owner of the hostel (called la luciernaga) offers great food quality in a nicely designed ambiance with sometimes live shows - but it's more a restaurant for tourists (but not a negative way)
Activites: advices for Salenton only!
- ask the hostels where is the meeting point for th jeeps towards Valle de Cocora, otherwise it's hard to find
- horse rid up to the humming-birds, about 15€ the ride up (45 000 CLP)
- and I think about 8€ (24 000 CLP) to visit the coffee finca
Also Salento is a place where you can easily find yourself shopping!
Accommodation:
In Armenia - OneCoine Hostel, cheap (one of the cheapest in town) and convenient. Lovely staff and not too far away from the plaza principal - 24 000 per peson (7 €)
In Salento - El Mocambo hostel (bus stop Lago de Venecia) a lovely old finca nested within nature, a peaceful place with a great staff, hommocks, a pool, a tipi and so much more. 20 000 CLP tent sleeping (6€) or per tent?
F&B: we tried many restaurants and places to eat. Can't really recommend one in particular, they all had their ups and owns. The best is to wander around town and try local places. In Salento a restaurant connected to the owner of the hostel (called la luciernaga) offers great food quality in a nicely designed ambiance with sometimes live shows - but it's more a restaurant for tourists (but not a negative way)
Activites: advices for Salenton only!
- ask the hostels where is the meeting point for th jeeps towards Valle de Cocora, otherwise it's hard to find
- horse rid up to the humming-birds, about 15€ the ride up (45 000 CLP)
- and I think about 8€ (24 000 CLP) to visit the coffee finca
Also Salento is a place where you can easily find yourself shopping!
The Valle de Cocora is well known for holding the highest palm trees in the world. It’s known to be a very beautiful place especially when the weather is great, as there’s a beautiful contrast between the green valley, the blue sky and impressive palm trees. However we didn’t get lucky enough with the weather. We saw a bit the valley and its palm trees but the whole landscape was getting lost into fog, and on our way back it rained cutting off all the view. We horse rid up to the humming-bird (“colibri”) house, a lovely ride through the valley and the forest, full of rivers and beautiful paths. The ride was enjoyable yet due to the rainy weather the path was very muddy in addition to being rocky, which I think was something not adapted to the horses making it very difficult for them…. If you’re sensible to animal’s wellbeing then maybe it’s better to hike up there (about 2-3h). The Colibri house charges you 5000 COP (1,7€) to enter including a hot beverage and a piece of cheese. Nested in the forest this place offers a natural and safe habitat for humming-birds. It is quite impressive to be able to see them from up-close and admire the impressive work of nature: their thin beak, the gorgeous colours, the speed at which they can fly, the tinniest tongue with which they drink…
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