As most of you know, I’m a big latte addict, so to go to a bona fide Colombian coffee plantation and taste freshly roasted coffee there was a big buzz for me. Salento is a sleepy little village in the heart of the Quindio region of Colombia, and part of the area known as the “Zona Cafetera”. The climate is tropical and the mountains are high enough to be perfect for growing Arabica coffee plants (they only grow at an altitude of 1,500-2,500 metres).
It’s a beautiful lush green area, surrounded by the Cocora Valley and the National Park of Los Nevados. It’s also the only place you will find Colombia’s national symbol, the Palma de Cera (Wax Palm) tree, which is the tallest palm tree in the world, growing to 50 meters (160 feet) in height. Quite awe-inspiring to contemplate when you are standing underneath them.
We stayed in a place which had its own kitchenette, which was a huge treat for us because we really haven’t had the opportunity to cook anything for ourselves in the last two months. (Hey I know I won’t be excited about cooking after a week of being home again, but for now, it is cause for celebration!) In no time at all we had whipped up a Spaghetti Bolognaise, which lasted us two nights. Luxury.
The first day I was the navigator and having completely misinterpreted the Lonely Planet instructions, we ended up walking 18kms instead of about 8kms! But by the time I realised, it was too late to turn back. I was extremely unpopular. But it certainly gave us a more interesting, if exhausting, walk to the coffee plantation we’d chosen, which was an organic one called Finca (plantation) de Don Elías. Lonely Planet suggested having a tour from Don Elías himself, who only speaks Spanish, but when he appeared it was instantly clear that this was not a good idea, as he had not one single tooth in his mouth and was even harder to understand as a result. Luckily his English-speaking grandson was there to show us around instead.
Everything is done by hand, so it’s only a small-ish plantation, but we learned so much from our guide. For instance, they have to pick only the beans on each branch that are properly ripe, so they can’t wear gloves and there are a couple of poisonous snakes which like to curl themselves around the coffee plant and aren’t instantly obvious. One of them is known as “Veinte-Quatro”, which means 24, because that’s how many hours it takes for you to die, if you don’t get the anti-venom!
I won’t bore you with the details of all the processes that the coffee beans go through before they reach your coffee cup, but suffice to say I have a whole new respect for coffee. We did learn that the better quality Columbian beans go to companies such as Illy and the lesser quality ones go to Starbucks! Or so they said….
The next day we took a jeep with about 8 others to the Valle de Cocora to do another huge hike (took us 5 hours – another 16+kms – as we stopped for ages at the top where they have hundreds of Humming Birds). It was stunning but pretty hard going, especially having done such a huge walk the day before, albeit by mistake. The hummingbirds were amazing though, and extremely hard to photograph, bearing in mind their wings flap at around 50 beats per SECOND. This apparently allows them to fly at up to a speed of around 50kms per hour backwards!
We absolutely loved Salento and stayed 4 nights there. It’s off the beaten track so it takes a bit of effort to get there, but was well worth it. We bumped into an Australian couple, Katie and Rob, whom we’d met on the bus in Quito, so that was a bonus too. On our last night we found a Thai & Indian curry restaurant, which was absolutely amazing. Eating out is so cheap here. We had two huge Chicken Tikka Masalas and two wines and it set us back about NZ$16.
Next stop is Medellín, which involves getting a bus to Pereira (1.5 hours) and then another bus for 5 hours. But at least we can enjoy the views along the way and not have to worry about driving amongst the crazy Colombian drivers on the road. My suitcase has now lost it’s pulling handle, due to some pretty rough handling during the Frosty Top Tour, but we are hoping it will just last long enough to get us home without the wheels falling off as well :o)
2 Frosty Tops Do South America 