MANIZALES

Mountains above Salento in Valle de Cocora.

 From Medellin we took a WiFi equipped Mercedes Sprinter bus through the windy mountain roads to Manizales. We were stopped by construction for more than an hour so, the driver tried to make up time by driving extra fast. A poor women sitting behind us had motion sickness and barfed into a bag.

Sign in our Manizales bus "In case of seasickness ask for a bag".

We arrived at the bus station which is sparkly new and served by a cable car to downtown. Our accommodation was is in Zona Rosa. We took a taxi there and one particular hill was so incredibly steep the tires slipped and screeched. We stayed at Mountain House Hostel which is a big modern house in a middle class neighborhood where some architect had fun with multiple split levels. We needed cash so we went to Cable Plaza Mall. We refreshed on frozen yogurt at Smooth Berry then changed money at Western Union. We chit-chatted with the two tellers. They asked us to pick a number. The loser was to work Sunday. The woman got Sunday off and the poor man had to work.

Arepa (corn meal flat bread stuffed with cheese) stand in the main square of Manizales.

Campaigning in Manizales. Guys on stilts pull a banner across the road at a stop light. Vote for Galan!

We walked to downtown which is set on a steep mountain ridge line. We went along a pedestrian street and had a coffee in the plaza and after visiting a huge cathedral we were looking for a place to have a beer. We found nowhere that was very nice but settled on Café Portugal. It was the liveliest we saw and probably not the most reputable place. There was a bar in the front and a busy and bright pool hall in the back. The music blasted. There were party girls mixing in with the male crowd and people were singing and occasionally dancing to a song. A lot of bottles of rum and Aguardente (anis liquor) went across the bar along with copious amounts of Costena beer. A guy our age sat next to us and struck up a conversation. Jose had a son in Toronto. He had the bartender play some songs for Sheri, but the crowd wanted the Colombian music they love like Jhon Costeno’s “De Bar En Bar”. At $1 per beer we didn’t run the bill up much.

Ruben demonstrating coffee bean roasting at Hacienda Venecia.

First quality Colombian coffee beans ready for export.

Trudging through coffee plants at Hacienda Venecia.

Ruben at Hacienda Venecia

We went on an organized trip to a coffee farm called Veneica. The finca is 600 acres on steep hills 20 minutes from Manizales in the prime coffee growing area (Zona Cafeteria). The combination of multiple rainy seasons per year, steep slopes, and predominately cloudy weather between 2000 – 3000 meters makes for prime coffee production. Ruben our guide knew all there is to know about Colombian coffee. Apparently the beans on the Arabica coffee plants in this area are continuously ripening and, although there is one main picking time, each plant may be picked 18 times in a year. There is a real emphasis on quality and the beans are separated and resorted to make sure the best beans are the best. The best part for Curtis was he was able to drink nonstop espressos. After our tour we had a swim in the pool and a hearty Colombian lunch (juice, bowl of beans, rice, plantain, sausage, and avocado slice).

Pool at Hacienda Venecia.

Hanging around at the coffee farm.

Moving on, we bused from Manizales to Santa Rosa, then caught a cab to some hot springs (Termales de Santa Rosa). We asked the friendly driver which restaurant had the best specialty food of the region, Chorizos Santarosanos. He stopped at a place along the road and said this was the best place for Santarosanos. It had a crowd eating chorizo and mixed parrilla barbeque where they brought the grill to the table. We had the Santarosano - chorizo, arepa, dollop of salad and half a lime. We sat downwind from a grill piled with smoking chorizo and meat. Our friendly driver had lunch too and we were on our way.

Flyer for Colombians to spend the day at Santa Rosa Hot Springs. Bus, breakfast, lunch, guide, and medical assistance. Adults $39.50, children $34.50. A big weekend for Colombians.

We arrived at our accommodation, JC’s Cabanas, just down the road from the hot springs. It is a part wooden, part masonry, semi hillbilly shanty next to a river. After Sheri wrangled with the manager and a rain storm, we settled in our room. We walked up the road a short ways to the hot springs. The thermals are four large pools located near the base of a water falls. It costs about $11 to go in which is not cheap by Colombian standards. The water is warm, not really hot, the color is green, and it’s not possible to see the bottom of the pool. There were about 300 people there (pretty full) soaking and splashing around and in a happy mood. They were serving beers and Aguardente and piles of grilled meat at pool side, literally at the side of the pool. There were men’s and women’s changing rooms, but women were freely using the men’s area. We left at about 7:30 pm, but people were still coming in and most people stayed till midnight. Our suits and towels were biologically active until we could get to a laundry and have them washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer.

JC's Cabannas at Termales de Santa Rosa.

Termales de Santa Rosa

Sheri with a giant philodendron.

Next day dozens of buses showed up and maybe a thousand people were at the hot springs. Sort of flesh on flesh. We opted for a walk on a nature trail and caught a chiva (converted school bus) back to Santa Rosa.

Huge line waiting to get into the hot springs.

From there we bused to Periea bus terminal and caught another bus to the town of Salento. In Salento we had reserved a room at Hostel Tralala. It’s a clean, mellow, and very organized place run by a Dutch guy. It’s an old house he bought from some old women and fixed up back when Colombia wasn’t on the tourist map. Now the place is full every night, which is the story of tourism in Colombia, increasing like mad.

View of the main drag in Salento from the top the hill.

Hostel Tralala in Salento.

Dutch manager at Hostel Tralala in Solento. Free coffee all day long.

Hostel Tralala in Salento.

We spent a few days at Salento, but the main thing we did was walk up Valle de Cocora. We took a jeep packed with Colombians, Germans, and a Dutch girl to the village of Cocora. Then walked up along a stream through cow pastures and in to a forest reserve. We crossed several rickety bridges and walked up a hill to a farm converted to a nature preserve. Some old people were there serving coffee or hot chocolate included in the 3000 peso entrance fee. There were many humming birds flying around. From there we walked up a grindingly steep one hour uphill slog to a trial junction and on to where Sheri crapped out and Curtis went on to Esperanca Agua. On one section of the trail there were several small stone lined tombs from pre-Colombian Indians. We returned via a view point trail which had a section of down climb in it. We came back another way through a valley which was studded with wax palms. Wax Palms are the national tree of Colombia and can grow to be 200 feet tall. Their existence is threatened.

Sheri trekking in Cocora Valley.

Suspension bridge over a stream in Cocora Valley.

Humming Bird

German girls taking pictures of the humming birds.

Cocora Valley and giant Wax Palms.

Sheri heaving up the front of a jeep. They absolutely love jeeps around Salento. There are many restored jeeps in town and they have a competition to drive around the square with the front wheels off the ground.

Sheri with a big appetite after lifting the Jeep.

An incredible vegetarian restaurant near Salento. The lady was very proud of her restaurant and full of information. She showed us her organic garden in the back. She cooked up some spicy felafels for Curtis.

Brunch - a good place to eat in Salento. The waiter had gone to high school in New Jersey. Salento is a fast growing tourist town where Colombia is being rediscovered.

A break from Colombian fried food.

Adios Colombia. Buen viaje.

MEDELLIN

From the airy pleasant new airport at Cartagena we took a Viva Colombia Airbus 320 jet to Medellin in the central highlands of Colombia. We landed in the green rolling mountains and breathed in the cool mountain air. We took a bus to the city which wound along 45 minutes through the countryside. Wondering why the airport was so far from town we soon realized it was the only flat spot around. Medellin is set in a deep mountain valley along the Rio Medellin at about 5000 feet altitude (1500 meters). Most everything is very clean and organized and they are known for their city planning. You can drink the water. Medellin gets a rap as being the capital of drug cartels and violent kidnapping, but this is all in the past, and Medellin is nothing like that, nor is anywhere in Colombia where we visited.

Viva Colombia Airlines at Medellin

We stayed at Black Sheep Hostel in the upscale district of El Poblado. We walked up to an entertainment area near Park Lleras and had a beer at Club Social and another at Café Tinto Tintero where they were having a group discussion of success vs happiness. We had dinner at the vegan restaurant Verdeo, where we had a delicious meal and a break from fried Colombian food.

Botero sculpture - Cabeza (Head) - Fernando Botero is the most well known Colombian artist.

We went on a five hour walking tour of the downtown area of Medellin. The guide, Pablo, was a passionate young man, who explained that “Paisas” (people from the Antioquia Medellin area) have the reputation as good bullshitters and crafty businessmen. These are the two primary qualities of a tour guide. We went to the government center and Plaza de Luz and along some commercial areas and stopping at the Metro train. Pablo explained how a hand grenade had been dropped from a walkway into a crowd where we were standing. Nobody remembers one hand grenade given the chaos in Colombia in the 80’s and 90’s. But Colombians are a happy lot, and Pablo’s explanation is selective memory. They don’t remember their supreme court being besieged, or the army killing 2000 civilians and claiming they were guerillas (Falso positivos), and on and on. No, they remember Colombia beating Argentina 5-0 to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. That’s worth remembering.

Girls clowning around at the old train station.

Statue presenting how Medellin was founded

Plaza de Luz - Pablo in red shirt explaining how it has changed.

Towers in Plaza de Luz. They're lined with LED lights.

Botero sculpture - Man on a Horse - His style is alternative proportions.

Pretty lady sitting on a  Botero statue - Mujer con espejo (woman with mirror)

Botero sculpture blown up by a bomb on June 10, 1995 in San Antonio Park. The artist insisted it not be removed.

Replacement of the Botero "bird" sculpture located next to blown up sculpture.

We had lunch along Pasaje Junín at Restaurante Hacienda. Curtis had the traditional meal called bandeja paisa. It consists of a calorie busting combo of finely ground meat, white rice, lots of beans, a slab of pork belly, spicy chorizo, black pudding chorizo, a fried egg, a fried plantain, a slice of avocado, and an arepa. To top that off we went downstairs to a tea room and had coffee and wedding cake or black cake which is like fruit cake with a fancy decorative white frosting.   

Restaurante Hacienda. Curtis had the traditional meal called bandeja paisa

Bandeja Paisa

Medellin has installed aerial trams and outdoor escalators to serve poor neighborhoods that are on steep hillsides. To counteract gangs they have located shining new libraries along transit lines in the worst neighborhoods. They are trying to include the poor who tend to be the 4 million internally displaced people of Colombia, who were pushed off the land, mostly by war and narco-terrorism.

Elevated section of the Metro train

We took the clean and sparkly Metro train to the Metro Cable, and then up to a second tram (4.6 km long) which took us into Parque Arvi nature preserve at about 2600 meters (8500 feet) altitude. We walked around and it started raining. Some horse mounted police came along and said the place was closing. As a diversion, one young policeman took us on a tour of their brand new horse stable located in the police “fortaleza de carabineros”. The horses were beautiful and included Belgians, Arabians, and many horses from Argentina. 

Metro Cable loading area at a Metro station

Metro Cable

Inside a gondola on the Metro Cable

Metro Cable Terminal in Arvi Park

Sheri petting a horse at the police stable