Time to Travel: Soaking up some peace in the coffee area

After marveling at the lush green hillsides and picture-prefect plantations around San Agustín and Tierradentro, we thought we had seen the most beautiful landscapes Colombia had to offer – until we reached the Coffee Region north of Cali. Only two hours away from Cali by constantly-stopping bus, the area around the tourist-hub of Salento is a haven of lustrously shining coffee plantations (the leaves literally glow in the sun!), babbling brooks, rolling green fields and towering, rainforest clad mountains. To make us like the place even more, we arrived on a weekend, when the town square is full of food stands and beer tents, and locals and tourists alike enjoy hanging out, seeing and being seen. We felt like we had landed in the middle of a village Kerwe (fair) somewhere in Germany, the friendly atmosphere and the free-flowing beer were exactly the same! The 2km walk to our hostel even increased our liking of the place, winding through groves of eucalyptus trees and offering wonderful views down into the valley below. If we weren’t already in love with the place by then, the sight of our hostel certainly sealed the deal. Yambolombia hostel, a sprawling, open plan wooden farm house painted in a wonderfully eclectic mixture of colours, is perched on a slope which offers amazing views down the valley to the west – perfect for sunset-viewing! The Austrian/Colombian couple running the place instantly made us feel welcome, as did the two funny dogs, Joint and Jambo who obviously considered themselves the rightful owners of the farm. It was the perfect place to just take things down a notch, sit back and simply enjoy. In addition to sitting on the veranda soaking up the sun, watching the last rays turn the gum trees crimson and chatting for hours around the fire at night, we spent one day learning about the art of coffee cultivation, harvesting, roasting, grinding and brewing. We now know that coffee plants take about 18 months to reach fruit-bearing maturity, the plants like pig-poo, but dislike pig-pee, and that planting banana and other fruit trees between the coffee is beneficial to the quality of the final product. Also, the perfect cup of coffee requires 6g of coffee to 100ml of boiled (but NOT boiling) water. Pre-heating the cups is essential. And above all, Colombian coffee is THE BEST IN THE WOLRD! Do not believe any of these evil Brazilians who try to convince you that they are the kings of coffee-production. They may have the upper-hand when it comes to quantity, but nothing, and I mean nothing, beats Colombian quality! J

Walking to our hostel through groves of towering gums

The walk to our hostel - the 2km always flew by!

The colourful and extremely welcoming Yambolombia hostel

The sun-soaked dining area in the hostel - you can see why we loved it!

Looking out the entrance of Yambolombia Hostel - what a view!

Enjoying the wonderful view from the hostel with some goodies

One of the hostel's funny dogs - Jambo

And his older, less energetic but all the more funny friend Joint

Sunset over the coffee valley

Coffee trees

Coffee bean before peeling and toasting

Walking through the coffee plantation

Coffee beans on the bush - the can only be picked when completely red

Coffee beans drying

Roasting the coffee beans - the smell is amazing!

Grinding our roasted beans - the old fashioned way

The finished cup - to be drunk WITHOUT sugar and milk (surprisingly nice!!)

An old coffee finca just the way I imagined it

The valley is full of flowers

Streams running between the fincas

We also managed to drag ourselves away from our idyllic hostel on day to visit the Valle de Cocora, a mystically beautiful (although completely over-crowded) valley lined with rainforest and topped by impossibly tall, thin wax palms. It is amazing they manage to still carry their own weight – their stems look so fragile as they tower above the cloud forest. Despite all the people and the masses of horse poo on the trails, we had a nice walk along the tumbling waterway, balancing our way over several rather wobbly wooden bridges and once again admiring the wonderfully varied plant life to be found in the Colombian forests.

Towering wax palms in Valle de Cocora

How on earth do they not fall over?

Walking through the lush, green Valle de Cocora

Walking through the cloud forest and alongside babbling brooks - to quote from 'The Castle' - can you feel the serenity?

A Willy - the only mode of public transport in and around Salento - you can imagine all the comments induced by saying things like 'I am going to catch a willy'.... :P

Salento was a dream come true, but we still had one more stop to make in the coffee region – the Secret Garden, a secluded hostel on the outskirts of Manizales run by friends of friends of ours. Despite the horrible trip there (suffice to say I had picked up a bug which meant I learnt first-hand the benefits of having a large supply of bolsitas in the bus….), and the fact that it took us a while to find (apparently it is so secret that not even taxi drivers in Manizales know how to get there!) we loved it immediately. We were the only visitors and had a little house all to ourselves, including a shower with a view to die for. Nothing like washing your hair while looking out over coffee plantations rolling down to a roaring river far below! And the hosts topped it all off – welcoming us into their home, feeding us well, filling us in on Colombian history, culture and the life-and-death importance of soccer, and even attempting to teach us to dance salsa (with less success than they would have liked – but we tried!) J On our last night we were treated to an amazing thunderstorm, raging and reverberating through the valley, and thanks to our glass-fronted and sky-lighted bedroom, we were able to enjoy the show from the comfort of our bed.

All in all, the coffee region had the exact opposite effect on us than the famous beverage produced there – it slowed and calmed us and removed every desire we may have had to hurry on..